Advantages of assaying telomerase activity in ascites for diagnosis of digestive tract malignancies

Table 1 Clinical characteristics and ascitic fluid analyses

	CA	HCC	LC
Number of patients	31	40	24
Age (yr)	65 ± 2	65 ± 2	67 ± 2
Sex: Male/Female	21/10	35/5	18/6
Protein (g/dL)	2.9 ± 0.2	1.5 ± 0.1d	1.5 ± 0.2d
SAAG (g/dL)	1.1 ± 0.1	2.0 ± 0.2b	2.0 ± 0.2b
WBC (cells/mm3)	481 ± 107	847 ± 590	149 ± 27
RBC (cells/mm3)	13093 ± 7975	192633 ± 104982	3730 ± 1515
PMN (cells/mm3)	177 ± 78	698 ± 550	20 ± 8
Lymphocytes (cells/mm3)	305 ± 77	149 ± 46a	128 ± 26a

Data are expressed as mean ± SE. CA: non-HCC gastrointestinal cancer, HCC: hepatocellular carcinoma, LC: liver cirrhosis, SAAG: serum-ascites albumin gradient, WBC: white blood count, PMN: polymorphonuclear cells.

^aP < 0.05,

^bP < 0.01,

^dP < 0.001 if compared with CA patients.

Table 2 Comparison of telomerase activity assay and cytological examination (n, %)

Group (n)	Underlying diseases (n)	Positive telomerase	Positive cytology
CA (31)		16 (52)	18 (58)
	Gastric cancer (10)	5 (50)	6 (60)
	Colon cancer (8)	3 (38)	4 (50)
	Pancreatic cancer (10)	7 (70)	8 (80)
	Cholangiocarcinoma (3)	1 (33)	0 (0)
HCC (40)		10 (25)	1 (2.5)
LC (24)		1 (4)	0 (0)

CA: non-HCC gastrointestinal carcinoma, HCC: hepatocellular carcinoma, LC: liver cirrhosis.

Table 3 Correlation between ascitic telomerase activity and clinical parameters

	r	P
Age (yr)	-0.05	0.65
Sex: Male/Female	-0.18	0.09
Serum albumin	-0.03	0.81
Ascites protein	0.08	0.44
Blood WBC	0.31	0.002
Blood neutrophil	0.29	0.005
Serum C-reactive protein	0.29	0.018

WBC: white blood count.