Aging is major risk factor for many diseases including several cancers. A better understanding of aging may therefore lead to a better understanding of aging-related diseases. Recently, researchers have established links between a person’s age and accumulation of epigenetic modifications (chemical changes to their DNA). Hence, your epigenetic age, your predicted age based on chemical changes to your DNA, is a great indicator of your actual age (time since birth) and, potentially, your predisposition to aging-related diseases such as cancer.
Recently, epigenetic age for 442 participants of a 10-year cancer study of older adults was measured using DNA collected from their white blood cells1. At the beginning of the study all participants were cancer-free and, subsequently, donated blood 3 times for the study’s duration (at about 3.5y intervals). At the end of the study 132 participants had developed some form of cancer and, of these, 34 succumbed to their disease.
Interestingly, scientists observed that there are differences between the chronological age of donors who developed cancers and their epigenetic age. In contrast, the chronological age of those who are cancer-free closely matches their epigenetic age.
Overall, their results strongly suggest that comparisons of epigenetic age predicted from white blood cell DNA and chronological age of patients may be a robust diagnostic indicator of cancer onset and mortality.
These important observations suggest that no matter where cancer occurs in the body, it could leave epigenetic mark on white blood cells: the first immune responders triggering the initial inflammatory response at the onset of cancer in all tissue types. The authors conclude that epigenetic age prediction from white blood cell DNA may serve as a minimally invasive cancer risk and prognosis assessment for many cancer types..