Accelerated Biological Aging Linked to Higher Cancer Risk

Accelerated biological aging was associated with a higher risk of early-onset solid cancers in young adults, particularly lung, gastrointestinal, and uterine cancers, suggesting that biological aging may help explain the rising incidence of cancer in recent generations. In a study of 154,169 young adults from the UK Biobank, systemic biological aging, measured by PhenoAge, increased across successive birth cohorts, with individuals born between 1965 and 1974 showing a 23% higher standardized PhenoAge than those born between 1950 and 1954. Each standard deviation increase in PhenoAge was associated with an 8% higher risk of early-onset solid cancer, independent of genetic risks for aging and cancer. Similar findings were observed using alternative measures of systemic aging, including the Klemera–Doubal age gap and metabolomic-based age gap, and were partially validated in 10,262 participants from the U.S. All of Us Research Program. Proteomics-based analyses further linked accelerated immune aging to early-onset lung cancer and accelerated adipose tissue aging to early-onset colorectal cancer. These findings suggest that a greater biological age relative to chronological age may be an important factor associated with early-onset solid cancer risk and highlight the need to uncover the underlying mechanisms to inform effective prevention strategies. Source: https://www.nature.com/