Telomeres, telomerase and colorectal cancer

Figure 2 Representative panels of telomere length and telomerase reverse transcriptase levels. A: Relative telomere length in tumours (K) and adjacent mucosa (N) according to tumour stages I (30 samples), II (45 samples), III (29 samples), and IV (29 samples). The cases included those reported in Rampazzo et al[41]. Telomere length was significant shorter in tumours than in adjacent mucosa (^bP < 0.0001) at all tumour stages, but telomere lengths did not significantly differ with tumour stage. Relative telomere length was estimated using real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR)[41]; B: Telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) levels in tumours (K) and adjacent mucosa (N) according to tumour stages I (K: 25 samples, N: 17 samples), II (K: 35 samples; N: 10 samples), III (K: 15 samples; N: 5 samples), and IV (K: 30 samples; N: 22 samples). The cases included those reported in Terrin et al[55]. TERT levels were significantly higher in tumours than in adjacent mucosa and significantly increased (^bP < 0.01) with tumour stage. TERT levels were estimated using real-time PCR[41,55]; C: Plasma TERT levels before and after the chemoradiotherapy prior to surgery in responders (35 samples) and non-responders (42 samples) with rectal cancer. The cases included those reported in Pucciarelli et al[84]. TERT levels in plasma were estimated using real-time PCR[84]. Boxes and whiskers: 25^th-75^th and 10^th-90^th percentiles, respectively; the median is the central line in each box.