Telomeres are specialized DNA–protein structures that cap the ends of linear chromosomes. Telomerase is a large ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex that maintains telomeric DNA. Over 80% of human cancers show an activation of telomerase. The present study aimed to report the development of a quantitative assay for the measurement of hTERT expression in plasma of cancer lung patients based on real-time quantitative RT-PCR (qRT-PCR). The results of the study showed that the level of the enzyme in plasma increases in 73% of the study group. The sensitivity and the specificity were 73.7 &90.0 respectively.