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Science 26 July 2002:
Vol. 297. no. 5581, pp. 565 - 569
DOI: 10.1126/science.297.5581.565
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Connecting Chromosomes, Crisis, and Cancer

Richard S. Maser, Ronald A. DePinho*

Cancer is a disease of impaired genome stability. The molecular forces that maintain genome integrity and sense altered chromosome structure are invariably subverted in cancer cells. Here, we explore the contrasting contributions of telomeres in the initiation and suppression of cancer and review the evidence supporting a role for telomere dysfunction as a mechanism driving the radical chromosomal aberrations that typify cancer genomes. Recent work suggests that passage of cells through crisis in the setting of deactivated DNA damage checkpoints provides a mutational mechanism that can generate the diverse genetic alterations required for cancer initiation. A greater understanding of telomere-induced crisis and the cell's crisis management mechanisms should guide the rational development of new therapeutics for cancer and other disorders.

Department of Adult Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Departments of Medicine and Genetics, Harvard Medical School, 44 Binney Street, M413, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ron_depinho{at}dfci.harvard.edu

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   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
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   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
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