Can Telomere Length Predict Cancer Risk?
The Telomere Cancer Link:
Cancer is a disease that millions have died from and continue to struggle with on a daily basis. Up to this point, there was no saying who, when or how someone would fall into the horrific whirlwind illness of cancer. To many peoples amazement, researchers have found the length of a persons telomere is in fact inversely associated with the risk of attaining, and dying from the disease.
The tips in red are the telomere section of DNA There has long been a struggle and fight to find a so-called cure for cancer. And while there is still no cure, doctors and researchers have long been looking for evidence to help predict cancer. If it were possible to predict who is more likely to develop the disease, there is no saying what could be done from there.
The problem has been a continuous battle to attempt to save millions of lives and it has unfortunately gone on with little success whatsoever up to this point. While the numbers vary from year to year, it has remained consistent that around 550,000 to 600,000 deaths occur every year from this horrific illness. Finally, there is hope for the future though.
The link between the telomere and Cancer
What researchers have found is that telomere length can actually play a role in predicting who is more or less likely to develop cancer. Research has found that those with the shortest telomeres were three times as likely to develop cancer over a 10-year period. This comes after studies comparing individuals with the longest telomeres versus the shortest.
Those who have the shortest telomere are not only more likely to develop cancer, but it has been found that they are also 11 times more likely to die from cancer. This research comes from a report published in the July 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. This research is not only important for predicting what could happen to certain individuals, but it could potentially help save lives in the long run.
It is important to note that at this point there is certainly no cure or prevention of the disease. Currently, all that is possible is potentially predicting cancer by looking at the telomere length. There is a possible association between short leukocyte telomere length and cancer formation. The assumption is that aging of the leukocytes can be reflected on the fact that short telomere length can actually impair the immune surveillance thus reducing the overall clearance of tumor cells.
Telomere study
The current analysis of the study included 787 individuals who ranged in ages from 40 to 79 who were free from cancer in 1995 and were followed until 2005. Telomere length in peripheral blood leukocytes was then measured at baseline. And the miraculous findings held up that the telomere length actually could predict who had a far greater chance of falling ill to cancer.
by: Stacey Zimmerman
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