In stem cells, hypoxia promotes TERT Δα and Δβ alternative splicing and nuclear localization, in a stem cell maintenance mechanism, the steric inhibition of which results in differentiation, suggesting that hypoxia promotion of tumour cell alternative TERT Δα and Δβ splicing may not only maintain telomer length and promote immortality but also cancer staminality [126–130] (Fig. 2c). Here, TERT is linked to cancer.