A recently released report by the American Cancer Society states that "approximately 1,685,210 new cases of cancer are expected to be diagnosed in 2016." However, some new studies may have found the light at the end of the tunnel, telomeres. People with dyskeratosis congenita (as described above) have a 1,000 times higher risk of developing oral cancer. This theory of the link between telomere length and cancer emerged in the 1990s, but only recently became provable. In the majority of cancer cases, many cells have been shown to have significantly shorter telomeres, leading to unstable chromosomes. When a cell becomes cancerous, its chromosomes become unstable and out of control. Cells continue to divide until the telomere becomes very short, but what differentiates cancer cells from healthy cells is telomerase, which will maintain the length of the cells' telomeres and prevent death. Scientists believe that if they can measure telomere length and block telomerase, they will be able to predict and stop the growth of cancer cells. In a recent experiment on mice with breast cancer, scientists successfully blocked telomerase and stopped the growth of the cancer. However, it had side effects like impaired fertility, wound healing, and production of blood cells and immune system cells (are telomeres the key to aging and cancer?). Targeting telomerase could be the answer we're looking for, but more research is needed to further establish the exact roles.