Undergoing Chemotherapy or Radiotherapy is, Literally, a Damaging Experience, but are These Consequences a Form of Accelerated Aging?

In this study, the cytokines VEGFA and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 also significantly increased and remained elevated at 12 months, but telomere length was not affected. In a cross-sectional cohort of patients in the same study, prior chemotherapy exposure was independently associated with increased p16ink4a expression comparable to 10 years of chronologic aging. "Don't get cancer" is great advice. It is a pity that it is so very hard to follow in practice. For my money the most important work in the cancer research community is that focused on building technology platforms that can be applied to either all or many cancers with comparatively little additional work. Victory in the sense of control over cancer will only come by crushing down the time and cost required to defeat each new variety of cancerous cell. The present morass of slow and painstaking progress exists because it has historically required an entire lengthy research initiative to be focused on each one of the thousands of noteworthy individual types of cancer, and that is still largely how business is conducted in this industry. This must change, and thankfully the signs of that change are beginning to emerge. One of the most promising fields of early stage cancer research, still only undertaken by a few scientific groups, is focused on interfering in telomere lengthening. Telomeres shorten with each cell division, and thus all cancers must continually lengthen their telomeres in order to su...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs