Faster Aging May Help Explain Rising Cancers in Young Adults
Key Takeaways:
- Study aims to understand why more young adults are getting cancer by looking at whether people who seem to age faster face a higher cancer risk at a younger age
- Biological aging is a way to measure how the body is functioning and reflects changes in areas like inflammation and metabolism
- The study found that people with signs of faster biological aging had higher risks of cancer before 55, which may help explain rising cancer rates in younger adults
Why are more young adults getting cancer? Researchers have been trying to answer that question as rates of colorectal, uterine and other cancers continue to rise in people under 50. A new study offers a possible clue: Some younger adults may be aging faster than previous generations.
Why Biological Age Matters
The study looked at health data from more than 154,000 adults in the United Kingdom and found that people whose biological age was higher than their actual age had a greater risk of developing cancer before 55. The findings were published in the journal Nature Medicine.
Biological age is different from the number on a driver’s license. It reflects how the body is functioning based on inflammation, metabolism and other measures found in blood tests. Some people may be biologically older or younger than their chronological age.
Adults who showed signs of faster biological aging were more likely to develop several cancers at younger ages, especially lung, gastrointestinal and uterine cancers.
Aging Faster Across Generations
The study also found signs that biological aging is increasing across generations. People born between 1965 and 1974 showed higher measures of biological aging than those born in the early 1950s. A separate U.S. database showed similar patterns.
Ana Gomes, PhD
The findings do not prove that accelerated aging causes cancer. Instead, biological age may reflect the combined effects of changes over time, including higher rates of obesity, shifts in diet, lower physical activity, environmental exposures and other health risks.
In simple terms, biological age may offer a snapshot of how years of wear and tear affect the body.
“This is an intriguing study because it moves the conversation beyond any single risk factor,” said Ana Gomes, PhD, vice chair of the Department of Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis at Moffitt Cancer Center. “What biological age may be capturing is the combined effect of many exposures and health conditions that accumulate over time.”
The study also examined aging in specific tissues. Aging-related changes in immune tissue were linked to a higher risk of lung cancer, while aging in fat tissue was tied to a greater risk of colorectal cancer. These findings may help explain why certain cancers are rising in younger adults.
What Remains Unknown
Gomes cautions that biological age is not a diagnosis and is not used in routine cancer screening. It is still unclear whether slowing biological aging would reduce cancer risk.
Still, the study adds to growing evidence that cancer risk is shaped by more than genetics.
“Many of the factors associated with accelerated biological aging are things we already know are important for long term health, including maintaining a healthy weight, staying active and avoiding smoking,” Gomes said. “The next challenge is determining whether changing those factors can meaningfully alter biological aging and cancer risk.”
More work is needed to understand what is driving faster biological aging in younger generations and whether those changes can be reversed.
For now, the study offers a new way to think about one of the most concerning trends in cancer research. The rise in cancers among younger adults may not be tied to a single cause. It may reflect a mix of factors that gradually make the body seem older than its years.
