Biological aging and the hidden architecture of early-onset cancer risk

Larger gaps between biological and chronological age are associated with increased risk of early-onset lung, colorectal, and uterine cancers across successive birth cohorts, according to a Nature Medicine study by Tian et al. The findings position biological age as an integrative marker of physiological dysregulation that may help explain the rising incidence of cancers in younger adults. The authors propose that combining aging clocks with mutational signatures could help distinguish tumor-promoting systemic states from tumor-initiating environmental exposures.