DNA methylation age as a biomarker for cancer

Abstract

Cancer is well established as an age‐associated disease, and there is substantial overlap in the molecular, cellular and physiological changes observed with both ageing and the progression of cancer. Age‐specific declines in resilience mechanisms such as DNA repair or epigenetic maintenance may contribute to the development of cancer. These declines may be assessed through biomarkers that measure biological age and through the related concept of “age acceleration”. Epigenetic clocks, assessed through DNA methylation levels, are among the most widely used biological age markers in cancer studies. In this review, we discuss the use of DNA methylation ageing measures to predict population cancer incidence, mortality and survival. Blood‐based DNA methylation age estimators appear to be promising measures of increased cancer risk and mortality, although their reported effects are generally weak, thus its clinical relevance remains to be validated in large case‐cohort and longitudinal studies. Future development of epigenetic and other biological age biomarkers will likely further elucidate the links between ageing and cancer.

Work-related stress and well-being in association with epigenetic age acceleration: A Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 Study

“…At the same time, HorvathAA is a stable indicator of metabolic aging processes [52]. However, we have found that HorvathAA and HannumAA indicators are highly correlated, as reported by Lau et al [53], in contrast with others who reported low correlation values [54]. Our results confirmed that the GrimAge clock is higher in smokers (past and current) and in relation to alcohol intake, as also found by Kresovich et al [54]; in fact, the clock is constructed as the composite of 8 DNA methylation-based markers for plasma proteins and selfreported smoking packs [32] making it more responsive to smokers.…”

DNA Methylation Biomarkers-Based Human Age Prediction Using Machine Learning

“…A number of strategies have been utilized for predicting an aging process but often face the issue of low accuracy in prediction, which obstructs the potentials of several developments in such a domain. Nowadays, DNA methylation (DNAm) data have been emerging as a popular research area employed to predict the epigenetic age of organisms [ 5 , 6 ]. Recently, it has been shown that the process of aging is extremely associated with the alterations of DNAm in genome-particular situations.…”

DNA Methylation Age Drift Is Associated with Poor Outcomes and De-Differentiation in Papillary and Follicular Thyroid Carcinomas

“…Because genome-wide DNA methylation studies show shared epigenomic features between aging and cancer, providing explanations for their possible molecular links [ 12 , 13 , 14 ], the role for DNAm age in carcinogenesis has been recently explored. The obtained results indeed indicate that DNAmaa increases cancer risk, promote cancer initiation or progression, and predict poor patient outcomes in different types of cancer [ 10 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. However, in some other cancers, DNAmad is associated with aggressive diseases and shorter survival.…”