Probing the Aging-Cancer Link
(From ScienceDaily). There is plenty of evidence for the proposition that the balance between cancer and aging is a tradeoff; when tinkering with the settings in mammalian biochemistry, you can pick one of those two unpleasant choices to improve. As researchers dig deeper in the mechanisms of life, they are finding that other options may be on the table: "A person is 100 times more likely to get cancer at age 65 than at age 35. But new research [identifies] naturally occurring processes that allow many genes to both slow aging and protect against cancer in the much-studied C. elegans roundworm. Many of the worm genes have counterparts in humans, suggesting that new drugs may some day ensure a long, cancer-free life. ... This is very exciting. There is a widely held view that any mechanism that slows aging would probably stimulate tumor growth. But we found many genes that increase lifespan, but slow tumor growth. Humans have versions of many of these genes, so this work may lead to treatments that keep us youthful and cancer-free much longer than normal."
Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071014163656.htm