With the rapid rise in incidence of early-onset solid cancers, which occur before the age of 50, there is a growing need to identify generational risk factors that account for this rise and that may inform the design of future prevention strategies. With this objective in mind, Tian et al. conducted an observational cohort study utilizing data from biobanks in the UK and USA, finding that more advanced biological ageing compared to chronological age may be one such aetiological factor.
The authors first looked at birth-cohort patterns of biological ageing in 154,169 participants from the UK Biobank using PhenoAge, a systemic ageing clock based on 9 clinical biochemistry biomarkers. This revealed that relative to those born in 1950–1954, people born in 1965–1974 had a 23% higher age gap, defined as individuals demonstrating biological profiles that appear older than expected from their chronological age. Associated with this generational shift was a prospective increased risk of early-onset solid cancer, driven largely by lung, gastrointestinal and uterine cancers and irrespective of genetic predisposition to ageing and cancer.
