An international review in which the Grupo de Oncología Molecular of the IMDEA Nutrición Institute has participated indicates a possible relationship between accelerated biological aging and the increase in colorectal cancer diagnoses in people under 50 years of age.
Although this type of tumor continues to be recorded mainly from the fifth decade of life onward, more and more cases are being detected in young adults in different countries. The most recent data indicate that close to 10 percent of tumors diagnosed worldwide in those under 50 years of age are colorectal cancer, and that around 75 percent are already identified in regional or advanced stages.
The article, published in the journal "Trends in Cancer", aims to clarify the mechanisms that explain this increase in cases at early ages, focusing on the concept of biological aging, distinct from chronological age or number of years lived.
The authors describe that patients with early-onset colorectal cancer show an early activation of several hallmarks of aging, such as the accumulation of DNA damage, metabolic and mitochondrial alterations, epigenetic changes, as well as signals of chronic inflammation and dysregulation of the immune system.
"Some of these alterations are not observed only in tumor tissue; changes have also been detected in immune system cells that circulate through the blood and in indicators related to inflammation," clarified José Perea, the IMDEA Nutrición collaborating researcher, one of the leaders of the review.
As Perea details, these results open the door to the idea that, in a group of patients, the early onset of cancer could be linked to processes that compromise the entire organism and not only the intestine.
In the study, in which Timothy J. Kopper and Curtis J. Henry, from the University of Colorado (United States), and Antonino Spinelli, from the Humanitas Research Hospital in Milan (Italy), also participate, it is proposed that early-onset colorectal cancer would arise in response to environmental, metabolic, and genetic factors that accelerate biological aging systemically.
In this context, researchers emphasize the potential of designing new therapeutic strategies. In particular, they point out that acting on the dysregulated pathways associated with accelerated aging could reveal new tumor vulnerabilities, with an impact both on prevention and on improving clinical outcomes.
The study also places emphasis on the importance of analyzing biological differences in greater detail, since distinct molecular profiles between men and women are being identified. "These results further highlight the importance of moving forward toward precision medicine that takes into account the particularities of each patient and that also leads us to develop specific screening programs," Perea has said.