Abstract

AIMS/BACKGROUND: Telomerase is an enzyme that is expressed in most human neoplasms and is associated with tumour immortality. Determination of the point in neoplastic transformation at which telomerase is expressed may aid the understanding of tumour pathogenesis and progression. Despite numerous reports on telomerase, few studies have investigated its expression in high grade glial tumours. These studies, performed on archival banked, single brain tumour specimens, have shown conflicting results for oligodendrogliomas and unexpectedly negative results for telomerase expression in high grade astrocytomas, with one third to one half of glioblastoma multiformes being negative. METHODS: 34 rapidly banked glioma specimens taken from patients undergoing gross total surgical resection of their tumours were studied. Telomerase expression was assessed across 3-8 sampled regions from each tumour by the telomeric repeat amplification protocol (TRAP) assay. Matched mirror image tissue samples were taken for histological analysis of tissue adequacy, statistical correlation of telomerase with tumour histological features, Mib-1 (a marker for cell cycling) labelling, and p53 immunohistochemistry. RESULTS: All five well differentiated oligodendrogliomas were homogeneously telomerase negative and two of three untreated anaplastic oligodendrogliomas were homogeneously positive. In contrast, 10 of 14 high grade astrocytomas showed heterogeneity for telomerase expression across the multiple regions sampled. All glioblastoma multiformes and two of three anaplastic astrocytomas showed at least one region positive for telomerase. When test samples were individually assessed in both oligodendrogliomas and high grade astrocytomas, telomerase expression was associated with Mib-1 labelling (p < 0.001). For the entire group, telomerase expression was associated with grade of tumour, age of patient, and vascular endothelial proliferation (all p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This regional study clarifies that all glioblastoma multiformes are at least focally positive and that telomerase expression correlates with tumour grade in oligodendrogliomas. Homogeneity versus heterogeneity for telomerase expression across multiple regions of oligodendrogliomas versus high grade astrocytomas may provide important preclinical data on the use of antitelomerase agents in these adult glial tumours.