# Hallmark: enabling replicative immortality

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/enabling-replicative-immortality/  
OnCo record `enabling-replicative-immortality` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Cancer cells bypass the division limit set by shortening telomeres, usually by reactivating telomerase.

## Summary

Enabling replicative immortality is the hallmark by which cancer cells bypass the division limit imposed by shortening telomeres, usually by reactivating telomerase. Most tumours do this through TERT reactivation and a minority through the ALT route, as described in the Telomere maintenance & replicative immortality pathway, while the Cellular senescence pathway explains the barrier being evaded. Imetelstat is the first telomerase inhibitor to be approved (MDS, 2024), and the linked TERT promoter mutation entry covers the mutations that serve as diagnostic biomarkers. Readers reach this hallmark from the Hallmarks of Cancer overview, the 2000 hallmarks paper and the telomere maintenance pathway.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Tags: hallmark

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hallmarks_of_Cancer
- Hanahan, Hallmarks of Cancer: New Dimensions (Cancer Discovery 2022): https://doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.CD-21-1059

## Connected records

- pathways: [Cellular senescence](https://onco.cc/pathways/senescence/), [Telomere maintenance & replicative immortality](https://onco.cc/pathways/telomere-maintenance/)
- terms: [Hallmarks of Cancer](https://onco.cc/terms/hallmarks-of-cancer/), [TERT promoter mutation](https://onco.cc/terms/tert-promoter/)
- key papers: [The Hallmarks of Cancer: six capabilities every tumour must acquire](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-hallmarks-of-cancer-cell-2000/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/enabling-replicative-immortality.json