Breast cancer is the most common cancer among the women and makes up one- third of cancers. Telomerase enzyme is a ribonucleoprotein with reverse transcriptase activity that adds TTAGGG repeated sequences to the ends of the chromosomes. The expression of the catalytic subunit of the enzyme (hTERT) in cancer cell lines and different human tumors is shown. So, in this study, the proliferation of copies of the hTERT gene in primary breast cancer was studied. Forty five Paraffin tissue samples from breast cancer patients and forty five Paraffin tissue samples from breast non-neoplastic patients was provided from Ardabil Imam Khomeini Hospital’s Pathology section and DNA samples were extracted with phenol-chloroform manually , then Real Time PCR was done with hTERT Forward, and Reverse primers and GAPDH Forward, and Reverse. The tumor sample was compared with the non- tumor one to investigate proliferation of copies of the hTERT gene as a prognostic indicator in patients with primary breast cancer. Real time PCR curve analysis for hTERT and GAPDH genes in tumor samples compared with non-tumor samples showed that, there is no statistical deference’s between them (p=0.322). The point of the best cut-off value was at >18.1 where sensitivity was 60 and specificity was 58. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.555. For data analysis Spss statistical software was used. Our current studies on results of amplification hTERT gene, in comprising tumors samples with non-tumors is indication of early prognosis in primary breast cancer patients. While, amplification of hTERT gene in breast cancer patients compared to the control group indicates that there is no statistical deference’s between them and it couldn’t be considered as prognosis factor for the primary breast cancer patients. According to conducted research it could be suggested that the hTERT gene may be promoted through telomerase activity, but increasing the copy number in various tumor cell line is not always dependent on telomerase activity and it likely could have an independent activity.
Breast cancer, Telomerase, hTERT gene.
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