TERT and cancer: We proposed that BRAF mutation-induced activation of the MAPK pathway and hence elevated TERT in mutated TERT cancers, which is a strong suppressor of apoptosis, made such cancer cells evolutionarily become dependent on this molecular signaling system for powerful survival (through apoptosis resistance); once this system was disrupted, as achieved by the inhibition of the MAPK pathway, expression of the mutated TERT gene suddenly shut off, removing the suppression of apoptosis and resulting in robust cancer cell apoptosis (24).