How telomere length impacts cancer risk

People with either very short or very long telomeres are at increased risk of developing cancer – this is called the Telomere Length Paradox. Telomeres can act as a defense mechanism to prevent tumor growth by stopping cell division when they are too short, however, this mechanism is not perfect.

This is part of a short series of videos where we explore telomeres, telomere length and telomerase, as well as the impacts they have on our health and aging.

Chapters:
00:00 Is there a limit to cell division?
00:31 How do telomeres protect against cancer?
01:19 How do cancer cells continue to multiply?
01:55 How does telomerase impact cancer risk?
02:34 What is the telomere length paradox?

Watch the next video investigating techniques to measure telomere length:    • Techniques to measure telomere length  

Missed the previous video on Telomere Biology Disorders?    • Telomere Biology Disorders explained  

RepeatDx is a leading clinical laboratory for telomere length testing. You can find out more on our website: https://repeatdx.com/

Follow us on Twitter:   / repeatdx  

References
1. Aviv, A., Anderson, J. J. & Shay, J. W. Mutations, Cancer and the Telomere Length Paradox. Trends Cancer 3, 253-258, doi:10.1016/j.trecan.2017.02.005 (2017).
2. Shay, J. W. & Wright, W. E. Telomeres and telomerase: three decades of progress. Nat Rev Genet 20, 299-309, doi:10.1038/s41576-019-0099-1 (2019).
3. Barthel, F.P., Wei, W., Tang, M., Martinez-Ledesma, E., Hu, X., Amin, S.B., Akdemir, K.C., Seth, S., Song, X., Wang, Q., et al. (2017). Systematic analysis of telomere length and somatic alterations in 31 cancer types. Nat Genet 49, 349-357.
4. McNally, E. J., Luncsford, P. J. & Armanios, M. Long telomeres and cancer risk: the price of cellular immortality. J Clin Invest 129, 3474-3481, doi:10.1172/JCI120851 (2019).
5. Halaschek-Wiener, J. et al. Reduced telomere length variation in healthy oldest old. Mech Ageing Dev 129, 638-641, doi:S0047-6374(08)00163-2 [pii] 10.1016/j.mad.2008.07.004 (2008).
6. Lansdorp, P,M. Telomeres, aging, and cancer: the big picture. Blood; 139 (6): 813–821, doi:10.1182/blood.2021014299 (2022).