Advocating for Senolytics to Prevent Accelerated Aging Resulting from Cancer Treatment

Chemotherapy and radiotherapy remain the presently dominant forms of cancer treatment. Immunotherapies are making slow inroads, but remain a minority of all treatments. Both chemotherapy and radiotherapy kill cells and force cells into senescence, cancerous cells and otherwise. They are a balance struck between killing the cancer and killing healthy tissue, and are are not pleasant at all for the patient. Cancer survivors have a significantly reduced life expectancy, as large as that resulting from life-long smoking, and evidence strongly suggests that this is due to a significantly increased burden of>senescent cells left behind following treatment. Cells become senescent for many reasons, including the DNA damage and environmental toxicity produced by chemotherapies and radiotherapies. Senescence is a state of growth arrest in which cells bloat, cease to replicate, and begin to secrete an inflammatory mix of signals intended to attract immune cells. In a youthful, healthy metabolism, senescent cells are created constantly and quickly destroyed. In older people, more senescent cells are created and the processes of destruction become less efficient. Senescent cells accumulate, and their inflammatory signaling degrades tissue and organ function. This accumulation is one of the causes of degenerative aging. In this sense, chemotherapy and radiotherapy cause accelerated aging. That is a considerably better option than death by cancer, but it may soon be reversible...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs