Seven percent of the lesions with normal histopathology were positive for TERC amplification, 24% of the CIN1, 64% of the CIN2, 91% of the CIN3 lesions, and 100% of invasive carcinomas.
RT-PCR analysis revealed that TP1 was ubiquitously expressed in all G and carcinomas. hTR was expressed in 4 out of 15 G, in 2 out of 3 mPTC, in 5 out of 9 PTC, in 5 out of 9 FTC, in all oFTC and in 9 out of 12 UTC samples.
In conclusion, high expression of the telomerase RNA component was restricted to the malignant cells of all the gastric carcinomas investigated, as shown by ISH.
We have mapped the human telomerase RNA gene, (hTR), to chromosome 3q26.3 and show the hTR gene to be amplified in four carcinomas, (2/33 cervix, 1/31 head and neck, 1/9 lung).