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Chemotherapy

Life gained, years lost?

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 11, page 303 (2014)Cite this article

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New data demonstrate that chemotherapy causes a rapid increase in molecular markers of cellular senescence. Although mostly indicative of ageing of the haematopoietic system, these results indicate that molecular ageing might explain some of the delayed adverse events linked to cancer therapy.

The new data show that, in particular, levels of p16INK4 mRNA, a key marker of senescence, increased by 75% in peripheral T cells from 33 patients with breast cancer after adjuvant chemotherapy. According to previously reported rates of change in p16INK4 expression with ageing “the increase in molecular age caused by chemotherapy was on average the same as 10–15 years of chronological ageing,” says Norman Sharpless, one of the leaders of the study.

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References

  1. Sanoff, H. K. et al. Effect of cytotoxic chemotherapy on markers of molecular age in patients with breast cancer. J. Natl Cancer Inst. 10.1093/jnci/dju057

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  1. David Killock
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Killock, D. Life gained, years lost?. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 11, 303 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2014.67

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2014.67

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