Stratification of telomerase activity in cancer reveals associations with senescence and genomic instability.

ABSTRACT: Telomerase activity plays an essential role in tumor growth and varies across cancers, typically classified as low or high based on its expression level. This variation is pertinent to cancer-related mechanisms and hallmarks of cellular aging. However, the relationship between distinct telomerase activity groups (low or high) and specific molecular programs across tumor types remains poorly defined, largely due to the absence of a robust classification framework. Here, we applied EXTEND, our previously validated computational model for quantifying telomerase activity, to stratify tumors into low and high telomerase activity groups across diverse cancer types using an unsupervised, data-driven approach. We analyzed over 10,000 tumor samples from bulk RNA sequencing data in The Cancer Genome

SUBMITTER: Noureen N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12663852 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature