An acceleration in the pace of physiologic ageing is observed after adjuvant chemotherapy is used for breast cancer
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Hanna K. Sanoff, M.D., Norman E. Sharpless, M.D., and Hyman B. Muss, M.D., and their colleagues prospectively collected blood and clinical data from 33 women with stage I-III breast cancer before, immediately after, 3 months after, and 12 months after anthracycline-based chemotherapy. Blood was analyzed for markers of cellular senescence. They observed increased expression of the senescence markers p16INK4a and ARF in PBLTs immediately after chemotherapy, and which remained elevated for at least a year after treatment. In an independent cohort of 176 breast cancer survivors, prior chemotherapy was associated with a persistent increase in p16INK4a at an average of 3.4y after treatment. These results suggest the age-promoting effects of chemotherapy last for several years after treatment, and may be permanent.
The authors conclude, "We have shown that cytotoxic chemotherapy potently induces the expression of markers of cellular senescence in the hematologic compartment in vivo, comparable with the effects of 10 to 15 years of chronologic aging in independent cohorts of healthy donors." Further studies are underway.
Source-Eurekalert