Abstract: We propose that the upregulated expression and activation of telomerase is the necessary condition for the proliferation of immortalizing cells. For most cancers, this enzyme is a potentially useful target for therapeutic intervention.But it is now clear that simply inhibiting telomerase may not result in the anti-cancer effects that were originally hypothe-sized. Recently, scientists have discovered a positive regulator of the telomere, named Tankyrase 1 (TANK 1). With the bal-ance between the positive regulation of TANK 1 and the negative regulation of TRF 1, the length of the telomere is main-tained at a constant. The discovery of TANK 1 provides a bridge between telomerase and TRF1. Since the function of TANK 1 has already been defined in the process of telomere replication, it has become a hot topic in the mechanism of can-ceration and gene therapy. This article reviews the mechanism of TANK1 in oncogenesis and cancer progression and dis -cusses its value in cancer therapy.