Telomeres and cancer: tumor suppression and genome instability

The maintenance of genome integrity is fundamental for life as it preserves the faithful transmission of genetic material in all living organisms. Telomeres are nucleoprotein complexes located at the ends of chromosomes that act as protective DNA elements to prevent their shortening during cell division. When telomere protection is lost or dysfuntional, it causes symptoms of premature aging associated with other telomeropathies and contributes to genome instability, a hallmark of human cancers. In this presentation, Dr. Titia de Lange (The Rockefeller University, New York, USA) will discuss how telomeres are protected and maintained, and how telomere loss/dysfunction contributes to genome instability and cancer development by two distinct mechanisms. It either acts as a tumor suppressor pathway to limit cancer incidence by activating the DNA damage cellular response and arrest cell proliferation or leads to a telomere crisis, a state of widespread genome instability promoting many cancer-related changes, such as chromothripsis, kataegis, tetraploidization, and thus tumorigenesis.