Senolytic Therapies to Clear Senescent Cells Should Benefit Cancer Patients

It is well known that the present dominant approaches to cancer therapy - meaning toxic, damaging chemotherapy and radiotherapy, only slowly giving way to immunotherapy - produce a significant burden of senescent cells. Indeed, forcing active cancer cells into senescence is the explicit goal for many treatments, and remains an aspirational goal for a large fraction of ongoing cancer research. Most senescent cells self-destruct, or are destroyed by the immune system, but some always linger - and more so in older people, due to the progressive incapacity of the immune system. An immune system that becomes ineffective in suppressing cancer will be similarly ineffective when it comes to policing tissues for senescent cells. An increased burden of lingering senescent cells is a good deal better than progressing to the final stages of metastatic cancer, that much is true, but those who undergo chemotherapy understand that it is the second worse option on the table. It has a significant cost, even when completely successful. Cancer survivors may lose as much as a decade of life expectancy, and have a higher risk of suffering most of the other chronic diseases of aging. These consequences are most likely due to the presence of additional senescent cells generated by the treatment, over and above those produced over the course of aging. The open access paper here provides supporting evidence for (a) the presence of senescent cells following radiotherapy to be harmful to ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs