Telomerase activity in human gynaecological malignancies.

Aim: To evaluate whether increased telomerase activity can be clinically useful for detecting malignant cells in a variety of gynaecological specimens.

Methods: Telomerase activity was examined in frozen tissue samples of histologically confirmed lesions of the endometrium, ovary, and cervix. It was also assessed in exfoliated cells in cervical smears from patients with premalignant and malignant lesions and in ascitic fluid obtained from cases with malignant or non-malignant ovarian tumours.

Results: Solid tissues from carcinomas were telomerase positive in all specimens of endometrial (6/6) and cervical (6/6) origin, and in almost all from the ovary (12/13). Normal tissues from the cervix (0/5) and the ovary (0/5) were telomerase negative, but samples from normal endometrium were found to show telomerase activity, possibly due to the cyclical regenerative nature of this tissue. Conversely, dissociated cells in cervical smears from preneoplastic and frankly neoplastic lesions rarely showed detectable telomerase activity. Thus smears from patients with malignant tumours were only positive in one of two patients, whereas those from CIN-2 (0/5) and CIN-3 (1/17) lesions and from normal (0/10) samples were almost all negative. Telomerase activity was also scarcely detectable in cells obtained from ascitic fluid from patients with ovarian tumours.

Conclusions: As in many other organs, telomerase activity is increased in solid tissue specimens from malignant tumours of the female reproductive tract, but it is not yet a reliable indicator of the presence of exfoliated cancerous or precancerous cells in clinical specimens from such lesions. Interpretation should be guarded until more extensive studies have been conducted. The data on solid tissues presented here confirm that activation of this enzyme is a major hallmark of the neoplastic process.