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American Association for Cancer Research

Understanding TERT Promoter Mutations: A Common Path to Immortality

Overview of attention for article published in Molecular Cancer Research, April 2016
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • One of the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#5 of 2,029)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (99th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
34 news outlets
blogs
1 blog
twitter
8 X users
patent
3 patents

Citations

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224 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
268 Mendeley
Title
Understanding TERT Promoter Mutations: A Common Path to Immortality
Published in
Molecular Cancer Research, April 2016
DOI 10.1158/1541-7786.mcr-16-0003
Pubmed ID
Authors

Robert J A Bell, H Tomas Rube, Ana Xavier-Magalhães, Bruno M Costa, Andrew Mancini, Jun S Song, Joseph F Costello

Abstract

Telomerase (TERT) activation is fundamental step in tumorigenesis. By maintaining telomere length, telomerase relieves a main barrier on cellular lifespan, enabling limitless proliferation driven by oncogenes. The recently discovered, highly recurrent mutations in the promoter of TERT are found in over 50 cancer types, and are the most common mutation in many cancers. Transcriptional activation of TERT, via promoter mutation or other mechanisms, is the rate-limiting step in production of active telomerase. While TERT is expressed in stem cells, it is naturally silenced upon differentiation. Thus, the presence of TERT promoter mutations may shed light on whether a particular tumor arose from a stem cell or more differentiated cell type. It is becoming clear that TERT mutations occur early during cellular transformation, and activate the TERT promoter by recruiting transcription factors that do not normally regulate TERT gene expression. This review highlights the fundamental and widespread role of TERT promoter mutations in tumorigenesis, including recent progress on their mechanism of transcriptional activation. These somatic promoter mutations, along with germline variation in the TERT locus also appear to have significant value as biomarkers of patient outcome. Understanding the precise molecular mechanism of TERT activation by promoter mutation and germline variation may inspire novel cancer cell-specific targeted therapies for a large number of cancer patients.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 8 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 268 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 268 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 44 16%
Student > Master 37 14%
Student > Bachelor 35 13%
Researcher 31 12%
Other 14 5%
Other 44 16%
Unknown 63 24%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 98 37%
Medicine and Dentistry 44 16%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 24 9%
Unspecified 5 2%
Immunology and Microbiology 4 1%
Other 21 8%
Unknown 72 27%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 272. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 12 November 2023.
All research outputs
#131,186
of 25,349,035 outputs
Outputs from Molecular Cancer Research
#5
of 2,029 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#2,377
of 307,590 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Molecular Cancer Research
#1
of 30 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,349,035 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 99th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,029 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.3. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 307,590 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 30 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.