Pulmonary carcinoids are rare tumors of the lung with extremely different clinical courses. In many patients, they behave like benign tumors; surgical removal of the tumor leads to a complete cure. However, some patients experience aggressive growth and spread (metastasis) of the tumor with poor chances of recovery.
The biological causes of these different forms of the disease are still unknown. In a joint study, researchers from the Experimental Paediatric Oncology Department at University Hospital Cologne and the Department of Translational Genomics at the University of Cologne have now discovered that the progression of pulmonary carcinoid tumors is linked to activation of the TERT (telomerase reverse transcriptase) gene. The study "TERT Expression and Clinical Outcome in Pulmonary Carcinoids" has been published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology .
"Our study for the first time found a molecular explanation for the aggressive clinical behavior we observe in certain pulmonary carcinoids," said first author Dr. Lisa Werr. The TERT gene is responsible for the production of telomerase, a protein that contributes significantly to the stabilization of chromosome ends (telomeres).
This enzyme is not active in most healthy body cells, which limits the cells' ability to divide. In stem cells and cancer cells , however, the activation of telomerase leads to an unlimited ability to divide, making these cells immortal and allowing them to grow indefinitely. The researchers found that.