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Chemotherapy helps many women survive breast cancer but new research suggests the treatment may also accelerate aging and raise the risk of an early death.
Patients taking the most aggressive chemo drugs could lose more than 9 years of healthy life due to the aging, new modeling from Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center shows.
And effects from the drug-related aging may not be visible until later in life, the school’s researchers said Tuesday.
Chemotherapy, which destroys cancer cells, can also cause damage in normal tissues in the body.
“This affects many aging systems, including increasing the number of senescent cells, which are damaged cells that have stopped dividing and are also resistant to cell death,” researcher Swarnavo Sarkar, from the Center’s Institute for Cancer and Aging Research, explained in a statement.
“Senescent cells secrete biological molecules that cause several aging-related diseases through added tissue damage and inflammation.”
The modeling relied on years of public data to estimate aging tied to chemotherapy in 400 million women, aged 30-79.
The researchers also analyzed data on the relationship between chemotherapy and how much of the protein p16 is in the blood. The protein is a common sign of senescent cells.
