The Present Standard Cancer Therapies Increase Biological Age

The current standard treatments for cancer, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, are quite unpleasant and harmful; no-one would voluntarily undergo them given a better alternative. In fact, treatment makes people physically older, accelerating the processes of aging. There is evidence to suggest that this is due to an added burden of senescent cells. Cells become senescent in response to damage or a toxic environment, and there is plenty of that going around in any earnest attempt to treat cancer with radiation or chemical agents; in fact, many cancer therapies are intended to aggressively induce senescence in tumor cells. The presence of senescent cells is one of the causes of aging. These cells remove themselves from the usual cycle of replication, and in normal circumstances near all self-destruct or are destroyed by the immune system. Unfortunately, enough linger to contribute to aging. They produce harm through inflammatory signaling, the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), that corrodes tissue structure and disrupts tissue function - insignificant in small amounts, but very damaging given a sizable number of such cells. There are no doubt other mechanisms by which present cancer therapies touch on the causes of aging, however; given that aging is damage, and cancer treatments are damaging in many ways, we should probably not be surprised to find that aging is accelerated. Studies among long-term cancer survivors indicate numerous possible clinica...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs