A greater gap between an individual’s chronological and biological age is associated with a higher risk of developing early-onset cancer. Younger generations are aging faster biologically, according to a study published June 22 in Nature Medicine, a finding which researchers have linked to the rise in early-onset cancers.
Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis analyzed data of 154,000 young adults in the UK Biobank and of more than 10,000 individuals in the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program for the study.
Here are five things to know:
- Chronological age refers to how many years someone has lived, and biological age refers to how old someone’s body appears to be.
Researchers estimated biological age using clinical biomarker-based measures, metabolomic age scores and organ-specific aging measures. - Individuals in more recent birth cohorts had larger differences in chronological and biological age compared to those in older birth cohorts.
- A larger age gap in the younger cohort was associated with an 8% higher risk of early-onset solid cancers — particularly lung, gastrointestinal and uterine.
- Individuals with the largest age gaps, regardless of chronological age, had a 15% increased risk of early-onset solid cancers compared to individuals with the smallest age gaps.
- The study’s findings suggest “that measures of accelerated aging could help identify individuals at higher risk of early-onset cancer and guide new strategies for cancer prevention and early detection,” according to a June 22 news release from WashU Medicine.
Read the full study here.
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