Correlations between telomerase activity and telomere length in myeloma and normal plasma cells. Results showed that there was a strong negative correlation between TA and TL in the myeloma samples from treated (•) and untreated (○) patients, but there was no difference between them (P > .05). Dotted line indicates treated MM patients; linear trend, y = -0.285 × +4.336. Solid line indicates untreated MM patients; linear trend, y = -0.221 × +3.079. MM cell lines (Δ) had high TA and short TL, and 7 healthy donors (□) had low TA and relatively long TL. Seven MM patients exhibited unusually long TL (longer than 10.8 kbp) with TA less than 5.8% of NB control in 5 patients.