science
Study Links Accelerated Biological Aging to Higher Early-Onset Cancer Risk
A study published in Nature Medicine examined data from two large cohorts and found that people born in later decades showed greater biological aging than earlier cohorts. This accelerated aging was associated with increased risk of several early-onset solid cancers.
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Researchers measured systemic biological aging using PhenoAge and other clocks, then tracked associations with early-onset solid cancers diagnosed before age 50 or 55. Later birth cohorts showed higher levels of accelerated aging. Participants born between 1965 and 1974 had a 23 percent larger standardized PhenoAge age gap than those born between 1950 and 1954.
The increase was steeper among female participants.
Each standard-deviation increase in the PhenoAge age gap was associated with an 8 percent higher hazard of early-onset solid cancer. The association held after adjustment for genetic risk scores for aging and cancer and was driven by lung, gastrointestinal, and uterine cancers.
The same patterns appeared when researchers applied alternative systemic aging measures, including the Klemera-Doubal method age gap and a metabolomic-based age gap. Results were partially replicated in the All of Us cohort.
Proteomics-based clocks linked immune-system aging to higher risk of early-onset lung cancer, with a hazard ratio of 1.89 per standard deviation. Adipose-tissue aging was associated with early-onset colorectal cancer, with a hazard ratio of 1.60 per standard deviation.
The authors noted that greater age gaps may reflect cumulative exposures that increase susceptibility to early-onset cancers. They stated that identifying underlying mechanisms could help guide prevention strategies.
