Biological age and breast cancer
Breast cancer risk is linked to biological age
Valeria Sema, "Mednovosti"
Biological age – an assessment of a person's age made on the basis of DNA research – is associated with the future development of breast cancer, according to scientists from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Article by Kresovich et al. Methylation-based biological age and breast cancer risk is published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Researchers have suggested a link between biological age and exposure to environmental factors, which may be a useful indicator of the risk of developing diseases. They analyzed DNA from blood samples provided by participants of a specially designed study to identify external and genetic risk factors for breast cancer Sister Study (2,764 women, none of whom had cancer at the time of blood collection), conducted under the guidance of NIEHS.
To determine biological age, the research team measured DNA methylation, a chemical modification of DNA that is part of the normal aging process. If the biological age is ahead of the chronological (actual) age, this is called "accelerated aging".
"If you look at a group of people of the same age, some of them may be perfectly healthy, while others are not. This variability in health status may be better reflected by biological age than chronological age," explained the study's lead author Jacob Kresovich in a press release of Older Biological Age Linked to Elevated Breast Cancer Risk.
Since age is the leading risk factor for breast cancer, the acceleration of age may be associated with a higher risk of developing this type of cancer. And indeed, according to the data obtained, every additional five years of biological age to chronological increase the chances of developing breast cancer by 15%.
"We found that if your biological age is older than your chronological age, your risk of breast cancer increases. The converse is also true. If your biological age is younger than your chronological age, you can reduce your risk of developing breast cancer. However, we do not yet know how lifestyle influences and factors can affect biological age or whether this process can be reversed," he said. Jack Taylor, a member of the research team.
This study is epigenetic (epigenetics is the field that studies how biochemical processes turn individual genes on or off without affecting the DNA sequence). According to scientists, using DNA methylation to measure biological age will help to better understand who is at risk of developing cancer and other age-related diseases.
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