Modern generations are aging faster at the biological level than their predecessors did at the same age, and this is directly linked to rising cancer rates among people under 55. That is the conclusion of researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, according to infohub.kz.
The work was published in the journal Nature Medicine. As ScienceDaily reports, accelerated cellular aging increases tumor risk. The study was led by associate professor Yin Cao and graduate student Ruiyi Tian as part of the international Cancer Grand Challenges project, with support from the Siteman Center and NIH institutes.
The scientists analyzed data from more than 154,000 participants in the UK Biobank and over 10,000 people from the U.S. All of Us program. To assess systemic aging, they used the PhenoAge blood biomarkers, the Klemera-Doubal method, and metabolomic indicators.
The results showed that UK residents born between 1965 and 1974 had higher systemic aging than those born between 1950 and 1954. In the U.S., the gap was even more pronounced for those born in 1990–1999 compared with the 1965–1969 generation.
Accelerated biological aging increases the risk of early-onset solid tumors by 8–15%, especially lung, gastrointestinal, and uterine cancers. The scientists also identified organ-specific links: immune system aging was associated with lung cancer, while adipose tissue aging was linked to colorectal cancer.
According to the authors, these biomarkers could enable early identification of at-risk individuals for personalized prevention.