Geron's telomerase "universal" cancer test is highlighted in
the latest issue of Science News (5/31/97).
The article reviews a number of studies reporting the
telomerase/cancer connection including two recently published in
scientific journals (Journal of the National Cancer Institute,
5/21/97 and Cancer Research, 5/17/97).
Since the article's full text is unfortunately not available
on the Science News Web site (www.sciencenews.org), here are the
last three paragraphs:
"More and more, these types of research studies show really
promising potential for telomerase activity measurement in
detecting cancer," says Calvin Harley, chief scientific officer
at Geron Corp. in Menlo Park, Calif. Nam Kim, a staff scientist
at Geron, devised the inexpensive laboratory technique now
commonly used to detect telomerase (and for which Geron has a
patent).
The technique has spawned dozens of studies in the past 3
years, says (Jerry) Shay (a Geron collaborator). researchers are
investigating the presence of telomerase as a marker for
prostate, breast, lung, and colorectal cancers.
Ideally, researchers would like to have a simple technique to
detect telomerase, such as a urine test. Patients object less to
such noninvasive tests, Shay says. |
