TELOMERASE AS AN INDEPENDENT PROGNOSTIC FACTOR IN HEAD AND NECK SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA

Abstract: Background. Telomerase activity has been found to be associated with many cancers, including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). We examined the associ-ation of telomerase activity with the clinical outcome of patients with HNSCC. Methods. A PCR-based enzyme immunoassay method was used to measure telomerase activity in 217 matched (grossly normal and cancerous) tissues from patients with HNSCC. Pearson chi-square test was used to analyze the correlation of telomerase activity with clinicopathologic parameters. Kaplan-Meier method and Cox logistic regression model were used for prognostic analysis. Results. Of the 217 tissues assayed, 4.1 % of the normal and 63.3 % of the cancer tissues had high levels of telomerase activity. Telomerase activity was shown to be statistically correlated with extracapsule spreading (ECS) of lymph nodes (p =.005) and overall survival (p =.003). Onmultivariant analysis, overall stage (p =.007), tumor depth (p =.045), and telomerase activity (p =.008) showed independent variables associated with poor survival. Conclusions. Telomerase activity has been shown to be an independent prognostic factor for survival in cases of HNSCC. Telomerase may be a potential molecular target for clinical use in prognostication and therapy in cases of the disease. A 200