The future of telomere and telomerase research will likely focus on a number of important issues, particularly related to the prevention and treatment of cancer. One goal of researchers will be to develop safe ways to limit or attack the production of telomerase in cancer cells and then kill those cells and thus the cancer.

There may be several ways to use our knowledge of telomeres and telomerase. Tests for telomerase activity may be used like Pap smears to predict or identify cancer in its earliest stages. After treatment, tests for telomerase activity might also be used to ensure that treatment was successful or to learn if a cancer has recurred. Such tests exist for other cancers. Patients who have been treated for colon or ovarian cancer are sometimes followed with blood tests for proteins unique to those cancers. Before a recurrent cancer is bulky enough to be detectable by X-ray, it can be detected by measuring the levels of those unique proteins. Similarly, the blood telomerase level might become a marker for new or recurrent cancer.

If medications to stop telomerase activity can be developed, they might have value in the early treatment of cancer, or even more futuristically, in the prevention of some cancers. Some people have inherited tendencies toward particular cancers (notably, breast, ovarian and colon cancer), and they could be candidates for telomerase inhibitors.

Researchers also recognize the potential benefits that telomerase activity has in certain tissues. If the power of telomerase to overcome the natural, finite life span of certain cells can be harnessed, then perhaps damaged or injured tissue can be stimulated to regenerate. Perhaps telomerase activity could be directed toward wound healing, or repair of tissues damaged by disease.

Research into telomeres and telomerase is still in its early phases, but scientists have learned much in these last few years. The knowledge they have amassed and continue to pursue offers enormous potential for understanding and perhaps controlling the diseases of old age.