Key takeaways:
- Young adult and adolescent survivors of childhood cancer show significantly accelerated biological aging compared with non-cancer controls.
- All 5 epigenetic clocks used in the study detected increased epigenetic age acceleration among survivors.
- Accelerated aging was associated with worse performance across multiple neurocognitive domains, including attention, processing speed, and memory.
- Greater epigenetic age acceleration was observed in non–CNS-treated survivors compared with CNS-treated survivors.
- Epigenetic age acceleration may help identify survivors at risk for cognitive decline and serve as a biomarker for targeted interventions.
Aging is accelerated in young adult and adolescent cancer survivors vs their counterparts without cancer, according to a recent study published in Nature Communications.1
According to AnnaLynn Williams, PhD, study lead and investigator from the University of Rochester, these effects may be reversed through exercise, improved nutrition, smoking cessation and other healthy lifestyle changes. This is vital to prevent brain defects that increase challenges in education, careers, and starting a family among these individuals.
“Young cancer survivors have many more decades of life to live,” said Williams. “So, if these accelerated aging changes are occurring early on and setting them on a different trajectory, the goal is to intervene to not only increase their lifespan but improve their quality of life.”
Neuropsychological assessments
The study was conducted to assess neuropsychological outcomes among young adult and adolescent cancer survivors.2 Participants included patients receiving pediatric cancer treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, alongside controls recruited from the same geographic area as survivors.
Eligibility criteria included being diagnosed between 1962 and 2012, surviving at least 5 years after diagnosis, and providing biospecimens between 2008 and 2016 during the same visit where neurocognitive testing was completed. From 2014 to 2016, whole-genome sequencing assays were performed.
Additional assays were performed between 2018 and 2019 for DNA methylation. Exclusion criteria included surviving a hematopoietic stem cell transplant, being non-English speaking, and having a genetic or neurodevelopmental syndrome linked to cognitive impairment.
Neurocognitive testing and clinical data collection
A comprehensive neurocognitive exam was provided to all participants alongside biospecimen collection. Researchers evaluated attention, processing speed, memory, and executive function. Additional data collected from medical records included cumulative chemotherapy, radiation doses and fields, and demographics.
Participants also provided body mass index and chronic health conditions during a clinical exam. The Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip (850 K CpG sites) was used to generate genome-wide DNA methylation profiling data.
