A study linked accelerated biological aging to early forms of cancer
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have discovered a link between accelerated biological aging and the risk of early-onset cancer in people under the age of 50. According to Deutsche Welle English, the gap between chronological and biological age is widening among younger generations, which may be linked to an increase in the number of early cancer diagnoses.
Chronological age is determined by the number of years since birth, while biological age reflects the degree of aging of the body based on accumulated cellular damage. Different organs and tissues within the same person can age at different rates. To assess biological age, researchers use, among other things, data on epigenetic changes in DNA, certain blood markers, telomere length, as well as physiological and cognitive assessments.
The authors of the study applied a combination of these methods to analyze data from over 150,000 participants in the UK Biobank. Among people born between 1965 and 1974, the gap between chronological and biological age was significantly greater than in the group born between 1950 and 1954. The younger the study cohort, the greater this gap turned out to be.
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In an analysis involving more than 10,000 people in the U.S., an even greater discrepancy was found among those born between 1990 and 1999 compared to the 1965–1969 cohort. The study’s authors also noted that in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, people born in the 1990s have at least four times the risk of early-onset colorectal cancer compared to those born in the 1960s.
Hematologist Ron Yahimovich emphasized that the study is correlational in nature and does not prove a cause-and-effect relationship. Tanwei Yuan, an epidemiologist at the German Cancer Research Center, cited prolonged exposure to obesity at a young age, a sedentary lifestyle, and poorer sleep quality due to prolonged screen use as possible factors. She advised people to see a doctor and discuss testing options if they are feeling unwell.
