Pancreatic tumors intraductal papillary mucinous

The detection of telomerase activity or hTERT mRNA in excretion, secretion, brushings, and washings has been evaluated. In pancreatic, secretion samples, which contain freshly exfoliated cells, detection of telomerase activity was encouraging for cancer detection. Telomerase activity was also found to be useful in distinguishing between adenoma and carcinoma in intraductal papillary-mucinous tumors, which can sometimes be difficult to diagnose. In bronchial brushing samples, the clinical sensitivity of cancer detection is below 70% and false-positive results are commonly encountered because of contamination witli lymphocytes, which contain measurable telomerase activity. The measurement of telomerase is also expected to become a useful... 

Shibahara H, Tamada S, Goto M, et al. Pathologic features of mucin-producing bile duct tumors two histopathologic categories as counterparts of pancreatic intraductal papillary-mucinous neoplasms. Am J Surg Pathol. 2004 28 327-338. 

Irie H, Yoshimitsu K, Aibe H et al. (2004) Natural history of pancreatic intraductal papillary mucinous tumor of branch duct type follow-up study by magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography. J Comput Assist Tomogr 28 117-122... 

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