Aging cells' response to short telomeres could fight cancer.

LONDON -- New insights into the mechanisms that call a halt to cell division once a cell begins to age could provide clues as to how cancer cells continue multiplying. Researchers in the UK have discovered clusters of molecules around the ends of the chromosomes in cells that have stopped dividing because they have grown old--and many of them have turned out to be known tumor suppressors.

Steve Jackson, deputy director of the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Institute of Cancer and Developmental Biology in Cambridge, said, "Now that we know how healthy cells age, we can work out how cancer cells ignore this process, which could lead to new treatments for the disease."

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