Telomere Length Abnormality: Investigating Approaches and Correlations with Cancer, Bone Marrow Failure and Hematological Malignancies

Proper telomere maintenance is crucial for ensuring healthy cellular function. Telomeres have a tendency to reduce in length with cellular aging. Moreover several factors may promote telomere attrition. Other conditions, primarily due to genetic and inherited origins, can be characterized by unusually long telomeres. Both shortening and elongation of telomere length (TL) may lead to increased risk of cancer occurrence or cancer progression. Additionally, some hematopoietic dysfunctions may also be associated with telomere abnormalities. This review is aimed to describe and discuss main aspects of TL, in relation to carcinogenesis. The initial section describes main current methods for TL assessment, since the accurate and reliable TL measurements is a crucial issue in TL research. The various studies describing the association between TL and cancer risk are then reported and critically illustrated, with special interest on TL shortening in hematological malignancies, as well as in some peculiar non-malignant dysfunctions. Hence, a systematic analysis of the broad contribution of TL to cancer development is extensively appraised.