Association Between Telomerase Activity and Outcome in Patients With Nonmetastatic Ewing Family of Tumors

• Published in: Journal of clinical oncology Vol. 21; no. 20; pp. 3836 - 3843
• Main Authors: OHALI, A, AVIGAD, S, COHEN, I. J, MELLER, I, KOLLENDER, Y, ISSAKOV, J, GELERNTER, I, GOSHEN, Y, YANIV, I, ZAIZOV, R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Baltimore, MD American Society of Clinical Oncology 15-10-2003; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
• Subjects: Adolescent; Biological and medical sciences; Biomarkers, Tumor - blood; Child; Diseases of the osteoarticular system; DNA-Binding Proteins; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Neoplasm, Residual - blood; Prognosis; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Sarcoma, Ewing - diagnosis; Sarcoma, Ewing - enzymology; Telomerase - blood; Tumors of striated muscle and skeleton; Human; Ewing sarcoma; Prognosis; Enzymatic activity; Enzyme; Diseases of the osteoarticular system; Minimal residual disease; Biological marker; Malignant tumor; Bone; Telomerase
• ISSN: 0732-183X; 1527-7755
• DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2003.05.059

Telomerase is considered a molecular marker for malignancy. The aim of this study was to determine telomerase activity (TA) as a prognostic factor at diagnosis and as a marker for minimal residual disease during therapy and follow-up in nonmetastatic Ewing family of tumors (EFT).
Primary tumor specimens and 97 peripheral blood (PBL) samples from 31 EFT patients were analyzed for TA by the Telomeric Repeat Amplification Protocol (TRAP assay). The telomerase catalytic subunit (human telomerase reverse transcriptase [hTERT]) gene expression was evaluated by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and telomere length was determined by Southern blotting. The presence of the EFT chimeric transcripts was analyzed by RT-PCR. Correlations with progression-free survival were evaluated.
At diagnosis, TA in primary tumors did not correlate with outcome. During therapy and follow-up, highly significant correlation was observed between high TA in PBL samples and adverse prognosis (P <.0001). None of the patients harboring low TA progressed, with a long follow-up (median, 60 months) and a progression-free survival (PFS) of 100%. In nine patients, high TA actually could predict relapse, long before overt clinical relapse. The group of patients with high TA and positive RT-PCR had the most adverse outcome; PFS of 20% (P =.0025). TA was found to be a better prognostic factor than RT-PCR and histopathologic response at surgery.
The results suggest that TA is a significant prognostic variable, superior to the established clinical prognostic parameters during therapy and tumor surveillance. It could be used in combination with RT-PCR for a new risk classification.