Saturday, January 01, 2022

Tumors differ depending on age of cancer patients

Seems surprising that not more research into aging and cancer has been conducted!

"... For their study, the investigators examined differences in tumor types by age using the Cancer Genome Atlas, a large databank of genomic and gene expression data of primary cancer tumors and matched healthy tissue samples across 33 cancer types. They identified 16 cancer types with significant differences in overall survival between younger and older patients.

Next, they narrowed the list to six with the most marked differences in gene expression between younger and older patients: breast, uterine, ovarian, thyroid and lung cancers and gliomas, a type of brain cancer. ..."

From the abstract:
"... The etiology and biology of age-associated differences among cancers are poorly understood. ... We show that these groups exhibit widespread molecular differences in select tumor types. Our work shows that tumors in younger individuals exhibit a dysregulated molecular aging phenotype and are associated with hallmarks of premature senescence. Additionally, we find that these tumors are enriched for driver gene mutations, resulting in homologous recombination defects. Lastly, we observe a trend toward decreased immune infiltration and function in older patients and find that, immunologically, young tumor tissue resembles aged healthy tissue. Taken together, we find that tumors from young individuals possess unique characteristics that may be leveraged for therapy."

Tumors differ depending on age of cancer patients | Cornell Chronicle

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