Clinical biomarker-based biological aging and risk of cancer in the UK Biobank.

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Authors
McMurran, Christopher E 
Hall, Per 
Czene, Kamila 
Abstract

BACKGROUND: Despite a clear link between aging and cancer, there has been inconclusive evidence on how biological age (BA) may be associated with cancer incidence. METHODS: We studied 308,156 UK Biobank participants with no history of cancer at enrolment. Using 18 age-associated clinical biomarkers, we computed three BA measures (Klemera-Doubal method [KDM], PhenoAge, homeostatic dysregulation [HD]) and assessed their associations with incidence of any cancer and five common cancers (breast, prostate, lung, colorectal, and melanoma) using Cox proportional-hazards models. RESULTS: A total of 35,426 incident cancers were documented during a median follow-up of 10.9 years. Adjusting for common cancer risk factors, 1-standard deviation (SD) increment in the age-adjusted KDM (hazard ratio = 1.04, 95% confidence interval = 1.03-1.05), age-adjusted PhenoAge (1.09, 1.07-1.10), and HD (1.02, 1.01-1.03) was significantly associated with a higher risk of any cancer. All BA measures were also associated with increased risks of lung and colorectal cancers, but only PhenoAge was associated with breast cancer risk. Furthermore, we observed an inverse association between BA measures and prostate cancer, although it was attenuated after removing glycated hemoglobin and serum glucose from the BA algorithms. CONCLUSIONS: Advanced BA quantified by clinical biomarkers is associated with increased risks of any cancer, lung cancer, and colorectal cancer.

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Acknowledgements: This research was conducted using the UK Biobank resource, as part of the registered project 22224. This study was accomplished within the context of the Swedish National Graduate School on Ageing and Health (SWEAH).

Keywords
Male, Humans, Biological Specimen Banks, Aging, Biomarkers, Risk Factors, Breast Neoplasms, United Kingdom
Journal Title
Br J Cancer
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
0007-0920
1532-1827
Volume Title
129
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
Academy of Finland (Suomen Akatemia) (349335)
Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish Research Council) (2018-02077, 2020-06101)
Cancerfonden (Swedish Cancer Society) (21 1571 Pj)