The role of telomerase activity in predicting early recurrence of epithelial ovarian cancer after first-line chemotherapy: a prospective clinical study.

PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATION: To investigate the value of telomerase activity (TA) in the detection of early recurrence in primary epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). METHOD(S): In this study, TA was studied in 30 patients with Stage III EOC and 50 control patients with benign gynecological disease. All enrolled EOC patients had had primary cytoreductive surgery and six cycles of platinum-based first-line chemotherapy previously. Semi-quantative TA measurements were done by TRAP assay in ascites, taken at second-look surgery, of cancer patients and in peritoneal washings, taken during planned surgery, of the control group. RESULT(S): Early recurrence was diagnosed in ten EOC patients (33.3%). Mean TA was statistically higher in EOC patients than in patients with benign disease. However, the mean TA was insignificantly lower in early recurrent EOC patients than in disease-free EOC patients. CONCLUSION(S): The value of TA is limited in the detection of early recurrence in primary EOC.