Cancer has traditionally been associated with older age, with the risk of developing the disease generally increasing as people grow older. However, cancer rates among younger adults have risen in recent years, prompting researchers to investigate possible explanations.
A study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine has found evidence suggesting that faster biological aging may be associated with a higher cancer risk among younger adults.
Unlike chronological age, which is determined by a person’s date of birth, biological age reflects the condition and functioning of the body. Genetics, lifestyle and other factors can influence biological aging, and accelerated biological aging may increase the risk of several diseases.
Researchers found that younger adults appeared to be experiencing biological aging at a faster rate than people from earlier generations. They said this may help explain, at least partly, why some cancers are becoming more common among people under 50.
Accelerated biological aging can involve changes in cells, organs, metabolism and other bodily systems. The researchers found that a greater gap between biological age and chronological age was associated with a higher risk of developing cancer at a younger age.
The effects of aging were not the same across all organs. According to the study, faster biological aging was more pronounced in organs that are commonly associated with cancer.
The research team also pointed to several factors previously associated with cancer risk, including body weight, declining metabolic health, alcohol consumption, prolonged sedentary behavior and unhealthy dietary patterns.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 154,000 people and compared the findings with another group of around 10,000 individuals.
The results indicated that biological aging progressed more rapidly among younger participants in the larger dataset. The difference was particularly notable among people born between 1990 and 1999, whose rate of biological aging was reported to be 92% higher than that of people born between 1965 and 1969 in the comparison group.
Further analysis found that accelerated biological aging was associated with an up to 8% increase in the risk of cancer among younger adults, with particularly notable associations involving lung and digestive-system cancers.
The findings were published in the journal Nature Medicine.
The researchers are continuing to investigate why biological aging patterns may be changing across generations and what factors could be contributing to the trend.