A study looking at cancer cells in fluid drained from the tummy (abdomen) of people with advanced abdominal cancer

This study was testing a way of finding and studying a gene that may help explain why cancer cells do not die off like normal cells.

In adults, normal cells do not grow and divide into 2 new cells very often. But cancer cells do this an unlimited number of times. This is why cancers keep on growing. Scientists had found a protein (enzyme) in cells which could help explain why cancer cells do not die off like normal cells. This enzyme is called telomerase. The gene that helps to make telomerase is switched off in most normal cells, but is switched on in cancer cells.

Researchers wanted to understand more about the telomerase gene. They hoped to study cells from people with cancer who had a build up of fluid in their tummy area (abdomen). This fluid (ascites) was drained in a procedure called paracentesis . Researchers wanted to see if they could find any cancer cells in this fluid. And then to find out if the gene which helps to make telomerase was switched on in any of these cancer cells. The aims of this study were to see

• How many cancer cells could be found in ascitic fluid
• If it was possible to find the telomerase gene in these cancer cells