Recent studies have suggested that, besides maintaining telomere length, TERT is involved in other cellular functions of biological relevance.5 In fact, in vitro evidence indicates that TERT prevents cell cycle arrest and confers protection from apoptosis induced by adverse culture conditions6 and DNA-damaging agents,7 prevents cell growth arrest induced by retinoic acid in promyelocytic leukemia-derived cell lines,8 antagonizes p53-induced apoptosis in Burkitt's lymphoma (BL) cells9 and inhibits apoptosis induced by tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α. This evidence concerns the gene TNF and Burkitt lymphoma.