الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. It is a prevalent cancer that often develop in patients with chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis in association with hepatitis B or C virus infection . Recurrence of HCC after resection still remains common and is considered the main cause of death after surgical resection. Recently developed diagnostic modalities, such as serum tumor markers, ultrasonography and CT, have contributed to its earlier diagnosis but they remain not sensitive enough .This high incidence of recurrence may be attributed to malignant hepatocytes which entered the circulation prior to or during the surgery .Telomeres are specialized structures at the ends of the eukaryotic chromosomes and function in chromosome stabilization, positioning and replication.Telomerase is a ribonucleoprotein enzyme responsible in most eukaryotes for the complete replication of the telomeres at the chromosome ends.Human telomerase mRNA has been identified in many cancers and it is claimed to be significantly reactivated in HCC compared with precancerous lesions such as liver cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis.Telomerase activity has been found not only in germ line cells and stem cells, but also in various cancer specimens and almost in all human cancer including breast, bladder, ovary, prostate, colon, liver, stomach, brain and others . However, the detailed relationship between telomerase activity and malignant progression of cancer has yet to be elucidated .PDF created with pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com 141 The present study revealed that Real-time measurement of h-TERT mRNA in the peripheral blood of patients with CLD & cirrhosis could be used as asatisfactory molecular marker for diagnosis of HCC.from the results of the present work, a wider scale study involving larger number of patients with HCC and non-cancerous liver diseases at different stages is recommended.More evaluation of HCC staging and long term follow up of cases before and after diagnosis and treatment might give a focused scope of vision of telomerase in hepatocarcinogenesis and to evaluate the role of telomerase inhibitors for cancer therapy.