Identifying biomarkers of accelerated ageing in cancer patients from routine clinical data.

Authors

Clodagh Bottomley, Evelyne Liuu, Beatriz Echarte, Danielle Harari, Tania Kalsi, Carlos de Pablo, Carly Welch

Published in

Mechanisms of ageing and development. Pages 112234. Aug 14, 2026. Epub Aug 14, 2026.

Abstract

Cancer and ageing have a bidirectional relationship: age is the strongest risk factor for cancer, and cancer and treatments can accelerate ageing. Therefore, biological age can differ from chronological age; biomarkers are needed to stratify interventions to minimise accelerated ageing.
PhenoAge was calculated from routine blood test results of patients attending a Geriatric Oncology clinic. PhenoAgeAccel was the residual from a regression of PhenoAge against age.
Data were available for 173 patients (62% male). Mean PhenoAge was higher than age (84.3 (12.6) vs 76.2 (7.24), p<0.001), though the two were correlated (r=0.579, p<0.001). Unlike age, PhenoAge and PhenoAgeAccel were associated with one-year mortality (PhenoAge OR=1.083, 95% CI: 1.038-1.136; PhenoAgeAccel OR=1.096, 95% CI: 1.047-1.155). PhenoAge correlated with Clinical Frailty Score and Timed Up and Go (CFS: Rs=0.31, p<0.001; TUG: Rs=0.25, p<0.005); there were no correlations with age. PhenoAgeAccel correlated with the number of CGA interventions made (Rs=0.17, p<0.05), unlike age and PhenoAge. Patients with diabetes mellitus had a higher PhenoAgeAccel compared to those without (3.40 vs -1.71, p=0.002). In patients receiving systemic anti-cancer treatment, patients with PhenoAgeAccel calculated pre-treatment had less age acceleration than those with PhenoAgeAccel calculated post-treatment, both overall (2.18 vs -2.87; p=0.048) and in matched samples (n=21, 7.76 vs -2.87, p<0.001).
PhenoAgeAccel is a greater predictor of risk than chronological age in older people with cancer. This makes it a promising biomarker to stratify patients for holistic geriatric assessment, dose reductions, or future geroprotective measures which could be integrated within electronic healthcare record systems.

PMID:
42600665
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 15 Aug 2026.

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