According to data from the Spanish Cancer Association, it is estimated that in Spain about 25,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed each year , and in fact it is the most common tumor among Western women.
Although cancer is a very complex disease, and we are only beginning to unravel its mysteries, the research carried out in recent years on cellular aging gives us many clues about its origin, diagnosis and treatment. In 2013, a team of scientists from the University of California (USA) published in the journal Genome Biology the development of a tool that allows us to find out the age of different human organs, tissues and cells.
And we can speak of ‘age’ in a chronological sense – years of life-, or in a biological sense . The latest scientific advances have allowed us to discover that, when our cells age, a chemical change occurs in the genetic material that consists of the addition of methyl groups to DNA, which causes a change in its functionality. This DNA methylation has turned out to be a very reliable marker that alerts us to cellular aging.
Using this indicator as the basis for developing what they call ‘epigenetic clock’, the team of researchers managed to fairly reliably compare the aging over time of different parts of the body: brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidney, cartilage , etc. And, while the biological ages of most samples matched chronological age, some differed very significantly. And, here is the crux of the matter, the results revealed that the age of women’s breast tissue ages much faster than the rest .
“Healthy breast tissue is about two to three years older – biologically speaking – than the rest of a woman’s body,” explained Steve Horvath, leader of the research team. “And in women with breast cancer, the healthy tissue closest to the tumor is an average of 12 years older than the rest of the body .” In addition, taking into account that the clock indicated that the tumor tissue was an average of 36 years older than the healthy one, this result could also explain why age is a risk factor for many types of cancer in both sexes.
The development of this type of tool opens the doors to the development of more effective methods in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
