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What all cancers have in common

Posted on Feb 18th 2008 9:00AM by Jacki Donaldson

Filed Under: Diet & Weight Loss, Reviews & Products

It's called telomerase, and all cancers have it. An enzyme essential in protecting DNA during cell replication, telomerase helps us all grow to adulthood. Then it shuts off. In cancer patients, though, telomerase turns back on and causes uncontrollable cell growth in 90 percent of cancers. If scientists could only get a grip on this cancer commonality, maybe the disease could be stopped in its tracks.

One doctor has already decoded part of the structure of telomerase and has translated it into a 3-D image. It's the first time anyone has seen this enzyme and it just might help researchers find a molecule that can turn off its damaging effects. When might this breakthrough break through? In 5+ years, says the March 2008 issue of Reader's Digest.

Stay tuned.

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Tags: cancer, commonality, enzyme, Jacki Donaldson, JackiDonaldson, telomerase

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Robert Smith 2-19-2008 @ 1:27PM

Telomerase also switches 217 genes to cancer mode, and 76 of them are cancer growth related. (Elizabeth Blackburn UCSF co-discoverer of telomerase) It also shuts down the mitochondria and starts glycolysis for energy production instead, just like a fetus. (Mohammed Kashani-Sabet UCSF and Blackburn et al) It allows cancer cells to overcome the Hayflick limit, that is, the number of times a normal cell can reproduce without dying. Cancer cels are immortal in this aspect, and there is a sample taken in the 1950's that has made tons of cells, and continues today. The Hayflick limit is overcome by extending telomeres. Short telomeres would otherwise kill the cell on a subsequent division as actual DNA is ripped off during the division. The first telomerase inhibitor is in human trials in man right now at M.D. Anderson, U of Chicago, Ohio State, 5 hospitals in N.Y. and growing to 15 trial sites countrywide. Author, feel free to email me.