Hallmark: enabling replicative immortality

Cancer cells bypass the division limit set by shortening telomeres, usually by reactivating telomerase.

TERT reactivation (~90%) or ALT (~10%). Imetelstat is the first telomerase inhibitor approved (MDS, 2024); TERT promoter mutations are diagnostic biomarkers.

Cancer biology: what this kind of term is about · animated schematic, not to scale

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reviewCell 2000

The Hallmarks of Cancer: six capabilities every tumour must acquire

The hallmarks are the mental map most oncologists and researchers use to think about what cancer is and where drugs act. A newcomer can understand nearly every therapy as an attack on one hallmark: kinase inhibitors on proliferative signalling, checkpoint blockade on immune evasion, anti-VEGF drugs on angiogenesis.

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Hallmark: enabling replicative immortality

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