Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) gene expression in thyroid carcinoma: diagnostic and prognostic role.

Background: The catalytic component of telomerase, human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) has been found to be reactivated in immortalized cell lines and considered as a diagnostic marker for malignancy in different body tissues.

Aim Of Work: Therefore we thought to determine whether hTERT gene detection could serve as an adjunct in the diagnosis of thyroid lesions together with evaluation of its prognostic value.

Patients And Methods: The study included 50 cases of primary thyroid carcinoma including; 28 papillary carcinoma, 14 follicular carcinoma, 5 anaplastic carcinoma and 3 medullary carcinoma in addition to 5 cases of nodular hyperplasia and 5 cases of follicular adenoma.