Detection of telomere length from Pap smear in cervical cancer patients by SYBR-green quantitative real time PCR

Abstract

There are several studies about the difference of telomere length in each type of cancers.  Therefore, we aim to measure absolute telomere length (aTL) from cervical tissues by using SYBR-green Quantitative Real-time PCR (SYBR-green qRT-PCR) in cervical cancer patients. The cervical tissues of Pap smear samples were derived from 71 cases of squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma patients compare with controls matched according to age.  The result showed that the median of aTL in cervical cancer patients was significantly longer compared to the controls (1.50 kb/diploid genome, 95% CI = 1.11-1.81 and 0.73 kb/diploid genome, 95% CI = 0.46-1.01, respectively, p<0.001). However, the aTL median of 59 squamous cell carcinoma patients was significantly longer compared to the controls (1.63 kb/diploid genome, 95% CI = 1.23-1.98 and 0.57 kb/diploid genome, 95% CI = 0.41-0.93, respectively, p<0.001) but there was no significant difference in 12 adenocarcinoma patients compared to the controls (0.86 kb/diploid genome, 95% CI = 0.35-1.78 and 1.18 kb/diploid genome 95% CI = 0.74-2.1, respectively, p = 0.62). This result showed that SYBR-green qRT-PCR technique can be applied to measure aTL of cervical tissues from Pap smears. The aTL value might be a potential useful prognostic treatment for squamous cell carcinoma. The further study should be conducted in larger sample size. Moreover, aTL of squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma patients tends to be longer and shorter, respectively, showing poor prognosis.