| dc.description.abstract | The Consequences of shrinking chromosomes’ end-caps, known as telomeres- in
cancer development is only partially understood. One thing that is certain, however, is that as
tissue cells age and these end-caps start shrinking, telomerase enzyme production by the
affected cells increases in order to repair these telomeres. The problem with this process is
that it makes these cells immortal, making it impossible to maintain or renew themselves in a
natural fashion. While scientists and researchers have long believed longer telomeres are
associated with good health, some recent studies indicate that might not be the case. Scientists
at the University of California in San Francisco have shown that Telomerase Reverse
Transcriptase, an enzyme that maintains telomeres and hence protects cells from aging, also
plays a significant role in the development of brain cancer known as gliomas. This discovery
is one of the major challenges that face scientists and researchers in designing effective drugs
against cancer.
After more than four decades of telomeres research, leading to a belief that longer
telomeres are important for good overall health and in protecting cells from senescence, this
belief turns out to be only partially true or completely mistaken for certain parts of the body.
This discovery is quiet important in the cancer fight and leads to needed rethinking of cancer
development mechanisms. Does each tissue need a more specialized drug for that specific
tissue, and what approach can be taken if such is true? Should more efforts and resources be
directed to prevention or treating and curing cancer diseases?
The United States population’s 10-year cancer mortality and incidence rates were
compared with those of two states California and Utah with lowest cancer incidence rates and
two states Kentucky and West Virginia with highest incidence rates in the country. The use of
two states were used due to their lowest cancer incidence rates while two were used as states
with highest cancer incidences in the country. Overall, the goal in this selection of states on
both ends of the spectrums of cancer incidence rates together with the US population’s cancer
incidence rates is to provide a representative sample to study the environmental mutagenic-inducing
factors’ influence in contrast to the mortality hindrance factor of anticancer drugs.
Most anticancer drugs designed and used in connection with completion of Human
Genome Project (HGP) in 2003 will be discussed. The HGP had among its main three future
goals the designing of more robust and efficient drugs, vaccines and therapies for cancer
prevention or elimination. Analyzing the success of the anticancer drugs that were FDA-approved
from 2007 to 2011 has been emphasized in this research to determine if these
telomeres-targeting anticancer drugs have been successful in slowing or countering cancer
disease rates. Cancer mortality rates from 2002 to 2006-before more efficient anticancer drugs
were approved-are contrasted with mortality rates from 2007 to 2011.
This research was unable to conclusively establish a clear role of anticancer drugs in
cancer mortality rates decline in the US population by replicating their clinical trials’
effectiveness through expected mortality rates reduction. Meanwhile, smoking and tobacco
use as an environmental mutagenic factor in lung and bronchus cancer incidence rates yielded
conclusive research results in both sexes. The Pearson correlation coefficient calculation
ranged from 0.5414 to 0.781 for the US population and three out of four selected states. It was
also found that smoking and tobacco use might explain 29 to 60 percent of the lungs and
bronchus cancer incidence rates in the US population and three out of four selected states that
were studied. | en_US |
