Abstract
Human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) is regarded as a catalytic component of telomerase and a rate-limiting determinant of the enzymatic activity of human telomerase. The incidence of hTERT mRNA in pancreatic juice (PJ) revealed 6 (33%) of 18 patients with pancreatic carcinoma, whereas hTERT mRNA was not identified in PJ of 7 patients with mucin-producing tumor of pancreas and 24 chronic pancreatitis. Compared with clinicopathological parameters, the incidence of hTERT mRNA in PJ in the TS1 (less than 2 cm in greatest dimension of the PC tumor size) was 75% (3/4), although the number examined was small. These results suggest that detection of hTERT mRNA in PJ may be a useful marker for diagnosis of pancreatic carcinoma.
