Recent advances of Blood telomere length (BTL) shortening: A potential biomarker for development of cancer.

Telomeres, the specific DNA-protein structures remains at both ends of each chromosome and are crucial in the maintenance of chromosome integrity and genomic stability with protection of the chromosome from damage and degradation.. Increasing evidences suggest the correlation between telomere length and the development of cancers, but the findings remain obscure. Generally, the average length of telomere repeats at the ends of chromosomes that gives a clue in providing indirect information about their mitotic history. It plays immense role in preventing genome from nucleolytic degradation, unnecessary recombination, repair, and interchromosomal fusion. It has major role in storing the information in the genome. Telomere attrition during successive cell divisions induces chromosomal instability and contributes significantly to genomic rearrangements that can result in tumorigenesis. Convincing evidence documented that a meagre portion of telomeric DNA is expelled out during mitotic stage of cell division. But accelerated shortening telomere length at critical level triggers senescence and/or apoptosis. Various harmful agents with bad lifestyles are responsible in inducing shortening of telomere length with damage of DNA resulting to occurrence of disease with shortening of lifespan. Besides, telomerases, the specialized polymerase that synthesizes new telomere repeats and is strongly associated with cancer facilitating malignant transformation. Therefore, in the study, it is highlighted that the telomeres may play diverse roles in different cancers whereas shortening of telomere length may be risk factors for the development of tumors.