Faster ageing blamed for global surge in early-onset cancers

People born in 1965 or later show signs of accelerated ageing, a phenomenon that is potentially related to the rising incidence of early-onset solid tumours worldwide, according to a large study.

Data from 148,724 participants between 37 and 54 years of age in the UK Biobank showed “strong evidence showing that successive birth cohorts had incremental risk of accelerated ageing, after controlling for chronological age,” reported first study author Ruiyi Tian, MPH, a graduate student in the Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, US.

Compared with participants born in 1950–1954, those who were born in 1965 or later were 17 percent more likely to experience accelerated ageing, Tian added.

In a multivariate analysis, accelerated ageing emerged as a significant risk factor for early-onset solid tumours (hazard ratio [HR], 1.08, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.04–1.12; p<0.001 for trend), particularly lung (HR, 1.42, 95 percent CI, 1.19–1.70), gastrointestinal (HR, 1.22, 95 percent CI, 1.11–1.34), and uterine (HR, 1.36, 95 percent CI, 1.13–1.64) cancers. [AACR 2024, abstract 846]

When accelerated ageing values were stratified into tertiles, the third versus the first tertile was associated with a twofold increase in the risk of lung cancer (HR, 2.02, 95 percent CI, 1.13–3.62), 1.6-fold increase in the risk of gastrointestinal cancer (HR, 1.62, 95 percent CI, 1.27–2.08), and 1.8-fold increase in the risk of uterus cancer (HR 1.83, 95 percent CI 1.10-3.04) being diagnosed before age 55 years.

Meanwhile, the associations were attenuated for late-onset (after age 55 years) lung (HR, 1.09, 95 percent CI, 0.96–1.23), gastrointestinal (HR, 1.16, 95 percent CI, 1.08–1.24), and uterus (HR, 1.23, 95 percent CI, 1.06–1.43) cancers.

“Multiple cancer types are becoming increasingly common among younger adults in the US and globally… By examining the relationship between accelerating ageing and the risk of early-onset cancers, we provide a fresh perspective on the shared aetiology of early-onset cancers,” Tian said.

Tian and colleagues quantified accelerated ageing by comparing the participants’ biological age with their chronological age. Biological age was assessed using the PhenoAge algorithm, which was based on nine biomarkers, namely albumin, alkaline phosphatase, creatinine, C-reactive protein, glucose, mean corpuscular volume, red cell distribution width, white blood cell count, and lymphocyte proportion.

“Unlike chronological age, biological age may be influenced by factors such as diet, physical activity, mental health, and environmental stressors. Accumulating evidence suggests that the younger generations may be ageing more swiftly than anticipated, likely due to earlier exposure to various risk factors and environmental insults,” Tian noted.

“If validated, our findings suggest that interventions to slow biological ageing could be a new avenue for cancer prevention, and screening efforts tailored to younger individuals with signs of accelerated ageing could help detect cancers early,” she added.