Age hinders cancer development, new study claims
| Sep 30, 2019, 14:00 IST
A new study claims the human ageing processes hinders the development of cancer. Researchers have yet to understand the biological mechanisms behind this link.
Every cell in the body has a specific task to carry out that has to express certain genes. The process of certain genes being activated to produce a protein, which is required, is known as gene expression. Multiple studies have used it to investigate cancer and ageing.
For the study, researchers from the University of Liverpool's Integrative Genomics of Ageing Group examined how different genes expressed with age and cancer. Nine human tissues were used for the experiment.
The team discovered ageing and cancer gene expression "surprisingly" changed in the opposite direction. Researchers speculate it may be due to a decrease in cell proliferation.
"One of the reasons our bodies have evolved to have senescent cells is to suppress cancers. But then it seems that senescent cells accumulate in aged human tissues and may contribute to ageing and degeneration. Importantly, our work challenges the traditional view concerning the relationship between cancer and ageing and suggests that ageing processes may hinder cancer development," study author Dr Joao Pedro De Magalhaes told a news portal.
Adding, "While mutations accumulate with age and are the main driver of cancer, ageing tissues may hinder cell proliferation and consequently cancer. So you have these two opposite forces, mutations driving cancer and tissue degeneration hindering it. This may explain why at very advanced ages cancer incidence levels off and may even decline."
First author Kasit Chatsirisupachai believes that there could be another explanation for it. "And aged tissue might actually be a better environment for a rogue cancer cell to proliferate because the cancer cell will have an evolutionary advantage," Chatsirisupachai told a news portal.
Dr De Magalhaes further explained: "Our results highlight the complex relationship between ageing, cancer and cellular senescence and suggest that in most human tissues ageing processes and senescence act in tandem while being detrimental to cancer. But more mechanistic studies are now needed."
The study's findings were originally published in the journal Aging Cell.
Picture Courtesy: Google Images
Every cell in the body has a specific task to carry out that has to express certain genes. The process of certain genes being activated to produce a protein, which is required, is known as gene expression. Multiple studies have used it to investigate cancer and ageing.
For the study, researchers from the University of Liverpool's Integrative Genomics of Ageing Group examined how different genes expressed with age and cancer. Nine human tissues were used for the experiment.
The team discovered ageing and cancer gene expression "surprisingly" changed in the opposite direction. Researchers speculate it may be due to a decrease in cell proliferation.
"One of the reasons our bodies have evolved to have senescent cells is to suppress cancers. But then it seems that senescent cells accumulate in aged human tissues and may contribute to ageing and degeneration. Importantly, our work challenges the traditional view concerning the relationship between cancer and ageing and suggests that ageing processes may hinder cancer development," study author Dr Joao Pedro De Magalhaes told a news portal.
Adding, "While mutations accumulate with age and are the main driver of cancer, ageing tissues may hinder cell proliferation and consequently cancer. So you have these two opposite forces, mutations driving cancer and tissue degeneration hindering it. This may explain why at very advanced ages cancer incidence levels off and may even decline."
First author Kasit Chatsirisupachai believes that there could be another explanation for it. "And aged tissue might actually be a better environment for a rogue cancer cell to proliferate because the cancer cell will have an evolutionary advantage," Chatsirisupachai told a news portal.
Dr De Magalhaes further explained: "Our results highlight the complex relationship between ageing, cancer and cellular senescence and suggest that in most human tissues ageing processes and senescence act in tandem while being detrimental to cancer. But more mechanistic studies are now needed."
The study's findings were originally published in the journal Aging Cell.
Picture Courtesy: Google Images