NIH Workshop: How aging and cancer interplay explored

At the National Institutes of Health Event, researchers talked about how aging speeds up cancer and how cancer accelerates aging. The NIH workshop summed up a few points on how aging and cancer reciprocate with one another and how a person can prevent the risk of cancer. The discussion revolved addressed the following concerns:

• How is age responsible for cancer?
• What environmental factors influence aging and cancer?
• How is reducing the risk of cancer possible?

How is age responsible for cancer?

As per the NCI Director, Ned Sharpless, M.D., Cancer cases are uncommon among people younger than 45. There is a sharp rise after that, and those between 65 and 74 years of age have the highest risk of developing cancer. One of the possible factors that lead to cancer is a mutagen. Mutagen is responsible for promoting errors in DNA replication. Sharpless discussed the fundamental causes of age-related cancers. These included:

• The abnormal lengths of telomeres, which are the protective caps of DNA at the ends of each chromosome. With each cell division, they shorten till a point that the cell can no longer divide. The cancer cells’ telomeres fail to shrink, resulting in cell proliferation and indefinite replication.
• Dysfunction in stem cells.
• Weak immune systems.
• Changes in cellular microenvironments promote cancer.

Also, he highlighted two critical points that need more focus from analysts in basic science.

• Firstly, certain cancer drugs are responsible for contributing to aging directly.
• Secondly, therapies that are beneficial in adults cannot be easily used in older people due to the host’s reduced recovering ability.

NIA Scientific Director Luigi Ferrucci, M.D., Ph.D., confirms that to this day, 50% of the factors causing cancer are not known.

What environmental factors influence aging and cancer?

Les Reinlib, Ph.D., conducted a session on the overlap between gerontogens and environmental carcinogens or agents that result in accelerating the aging process. Studies have put forward that gerontogens, including air pollutants, arsenic, and cigarette smoking, might cause cancer. This is because of the promotion of cellular senescence, or death of the cell. Although senescence disposes of old or damaged cells, it likewise advances malignancy by changing the cell microenvironment.

How is reducing the risk of cancer possible?

One common topic among the discussions was that aging and cancer share common biological mechanisms. By decelerating the aging process, it should be possible to reduce the occurrence of malignant growth. One approach to do it is by promoting a healthy cell microenvironment through legitimate nourishment, advises Trygve Tollefsbol, Ph.D., from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Tollefsbol also mentioned that specific dietary rules could help check the high pervasiveness of disease and even obesity.

• Caloric limitation using intermittent fasting
• Decreasing sugar intake
• Increasing the consumption of cruciferous vegetables (for example, broccoli and cabbage); genistein from soybeans; grapes; and green tea.

There is a rapid global rise in the population of older people. It is believed that preventing diseases like cancer in the elderly population is beneficial and cost-effective, rather than managing them.