Telomerase activity: a marker to distinguish follicular thyroid adenoma from carcinoma.

The inability to distinguish microinvasive follicular thyroid cancer from benign follicular tumors preoperatively presents an important surgical dilemma. We examined 44 follicular tumors and found telomerase activity in all 11 follicular carcinomas and in 8 of 33 benign follicular tumors. It was undetectable in 22 normal thyroid tissues adjacent to the tumors. Telomerase activity may thus provide a diagnostic marker distinguishing benign from malignant follicular thyroid tumors. The ability to identify invasive follicular thyroid tumors could avert over 14,000 thyroidectomies annually in the United States, thereby significantly decreasing morbidity and health care costs.

[1]  J. Sambrook,et al.  Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual , 2001 .

[2]  R. Effros,et al.  Mechanism of telomerase induction during T cell activation. , 1996, Experimental cell research.

[3]  J. Shay,et al.  Comparison of the telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) to the new TRAP-eze telomerase detection kit , 1996 .

[4]  Kazuhiro Yoshida,et al.  Telomerase activity in human breast cancer and benign breast lesions: Diagnostic applications in clinical specimens, including fine needle aspirates , 1996, International journal of cancer.

[5]  A. Gazdar,et al.  Telomerase activity in human breast tumors. , 1996, Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

[6]  I. Hay,et al.  Follicular thyroid cancer. , 1995, Endocrinology and metabolism clinics of North America.

[7]  H. Burch,et al.  Evaluation and management of the solid thyroid nodule. , 1995, Endocrinology and metabolism clinics of North America.

[8]  J. Shay,et al.  Activation of telomerase in human lymphocytes and hematopoietic progenitor cells. , 1995, Journal of immunology.

[9]  J. Shay,et al.  Modifications of a telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) result in increased reliability, linearity and sensitivity. , 1995, Nucleic acids research.

[10]  Herb Chen,et al.  Follicular lesions of the thyroid. Does frozen section evaluation alter operative management? , 1995, Annals of surgery.

[11]  B. Leber,et al.  Telomerase activity in normal leukocytes and in hematologic malignancies. , 1995, Blood.

[12]  J. Shay,et al.  Detection of telomerase activity in human cells and tumors by a telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) , 1995 .

[13]  C B Harley,et al.  Specific association of human telomerase activity with immortal cells and cancer. , 1994, Science.

[14]  E. Blackburn.  Telomeres: No end in sight , 1994, Cell.

[15]  C. Greider.  Mammalian telomere dynamics: healing, fragmentation shortening and stabilization. , 1994, Current opinion in genetics & development.

[16]  J. Soares,et al.  Thyroid nodular hyperplasia: chromosomal studies in 14 cases. , 1993, Cancer genetics and cytogenetics.

[17]  R. Kiss,et al.  Ploidy level and proliferative activity measurements in a series of 407 thyroid tumors or other pathologic conditions. , 1993, Human pathology.

[18]  G. Sozzi,et al.  A t(2;3)(q12-13;p24-25) in follicular thyroid adenomas. , 1992, Cancer genetics and cytogenetics.

[19]  C. Schultz,et al.  Frequent occurrence of cytogenetic abnormalities in sporadic nonmedullary thyroid carcinoma , 1990, Cancer.

[20]  J. Fagin,et al.  Clonal composition of benign and malignant human thyroid tumors. , 1990, The Journal of clinical investigation.

[21]  N. Lemoine,et al.  High frequency of ras oncogene activation in all stages of human thyroid tumorigenesis. , 1989, Oncogene.

[22]  Dana Quade,et al.  Interpretation and Uses of Medical Statistics. , 1977 .

[23]  M. M. Bradford.  A rapid and sensitive method for the quantitation of microgram quantities of protein utilizing the principle of protein-dye binding. , 1976, Analytical biochemistry.

[24]  D. Johnston,et al.  Analysis of telomerase activity levels in breast cancer: positive detection at the in situ breast carcinoma stage. , 1997, Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

[25]  E. Hiyama,et al.  [Telomere and telomerase in human cancer]. , 1997, Gan to kagaku ryoho. Cancer & chemotherapy.

[26]  C. Greider.  Telomere length regulation. , 1996, Annual review of biochemistry.