.....accumulating evidence indicates that telomerase reverse transcriptase may also exert some fundamental biological functions independent of its enzymatic activity in telomere maintenance. More recent studies have demonstrated that telomerase reverse transcriptase can act as a transcriptional modulator in the nucleus and exhibits RNA-dependent RNA polymerase activity in the mitochondria. Telomerase activation may have both telomere-dependent and telomere-independent implications for tumor progression. While many excellent reviews describe critical roles of telomere and telomerase in human cancer, this mini-review will focus on the role of telomerase in cancer progression with a special emphasis placed on the non-telomeric function of telomerase.