title: Telomere maintenance mechanisms in cancer: clinical implications.
abstract: The presence of immortal cell populations with an up-regulated telomere maintenance mechanism (TMM) is an almost universal characteristic of cancers, whereas normal somatic cells are unable to prevent proliferation-associated telomere shortening and have a limited proliferative potential. TMMs and related aspects of telomere structure and function therefore appear to be ideal targets for the development of anticancer therapeutics. Such treatments would be targeted to a specific cancer-related molecular abnormality, and also be broad-spectrum in that they would be expected to be potentially applicable to most cancers. However, the telomere biology of normal and malignant human cells is a relatively young research field with large numbers of unanswered questions, so the optimal design of TMM-targeted therapeutic approaches remains unclear. This review outlines the opportunities and challenges presented by telomeres and TMMs for clinical management of cancer.
authors: Children's Medical Research Institute, 214 Hawkesbury Road, Westmead, New South Wales 2145, Australia. rreddel@cmri.org.au.
authors: Roger R
authors: RR
authors: Reddel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism*; D019098:Telomerase / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000378:metabolism; D016615:Telomere / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D019098:Telomerase