[Telomerase--new diagnostic and therapeutic options in oncology]

One of the new directions in study of malignant tumor pathogenesis is telomerase theory. Investigations in the culture of human cells have shown that telomerase activation can lead to tumor development. Prospective investigations of telomerase could be able to supplement the data about tumor pathomorphology and will permit to conduct monitoring on patients with malignant tumors by studying telomerase in fractionated cells from different body tissues and biological media. Telomerase inhibitors are possible drugs for antitumoral therapy. It is supposed that the abovementioned agents will decrease telomerase activity of proliferating tumoral cells that will cause destabilization of their genome, stopping of proliferation and death of tumoral clone.