Detection of telomerase activity in human carcinomas using a TRAP-ELISA method:: Correlation with hTR and hTERT expression

We have evaluated telomerase activity in a tumour population of 65 human cancers by using a TRAP-based method, in which detection is performed by an enzyme immunoassay (ELISA). We have corroborated that sensitivity and specificity of this new procedure can be considered similar to that of classical TRAP method, having the advantage of a rapid and reproducible analysis of large pools of samples. Thus, telomerase activity was detected in 83% of the rumours included in our population. Moreover, we found a significant association between enzyme activity and both hTR and hTERT expression (P=0.004 and P=0.04, respectively).