4 ms·
my understanding is cancer gets more prevalent when the telomeres get old (short?), since it leads to more mutations/botched replication?
by herval 3y ago
my understanding is cancer gets more prevalent when the telomeres get old (short?), since it leads to more mutations/botched replication?
- dillydogg 3y agoI'm sorry for the delay, but this actually isn't quite right. Short telomere syndromes are not associated with cancer. In fact, it is long telomeres that have a strong association with cancer (largely because aberrantly activating telomerase can drive cancer development.) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22965356/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22965356/ for more on short telomere syndromes.