VIDEO - Measuring telomeres can help predict the risk for cancer and cancer outcomes

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VIDEO - Measuring telomeres can help predict the risk for cancer and cancer outcomes

(July 7, 2010 - Insidermedicine)

The shorter your telomeres, the greater your risk of cancer and death from cancer, according to research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Here is some information about telomeres:

• They are stretches of DNA that are found at the ends of chromosomes

• They protect the stretches of DNA that contain precious genetic information, much like the plastic tips of shoelaces protect laces from fraying

• Every time a cell divides, its telomeres get shorter, and when they become too short, the cell dies

Researchers from Innsbruck Medical University measured the telomere length in the white blood cells of nearly 700 individuals without cancer. They then followed up the participants for ten years to see who would develop and die from cancer.

Overall, nearly 12% of the participants developed cancer during the ten-year follow-up period. The shorter their telomeres, the greater the risk for cancer. Compared with those who had the longest telomeres, those with middle-length telomeres had more than twice the risk of cancer, and those with the shortest telomeres had more than three times the risk.

In addition, those with short telomeres were more likely to die from cancer when they developed it.Today’s research demonstrates how measuring telomeres can help predict the risk for cancer and cancer outcomes.

http://Hepatitis Cnewdrugs.blogspot.com/2010/07/july-7-2010-insidermedicine-shorter.html