Ron DePinho, Professor and Past President of MD Anderson Cancer Center, shared a post on LinkedIn about an article by Phillips et al.:
“A new study in The JAMA Network (Phillips et al., 2025) reports that adult survivors of childhood cancer exhibit accelerated brain aging, increased atherogenic risk, and measurable neurocognitive decline decades after curative therapy. These findings reinforce a sobering reality: cancer treatment can imprint a durable acceleration of biological aging across multiple organ systems. What is particularly striking is that these effects are not explained simply by chronological age or disease recurrence, but instead reflect a persistent dysregulation of cellular resilience pathways – those governing DNA repair, metabolic homeostasis, vascular integrity, and neuroinflammation. In other words, cure does not necessarily equate to biological recovery.
This emerging evidence aligns closely with our work on TERT restoration and the concept that aging is a reversible biological state. Rather than addressing downstream organ damage in isolation, TAC seeks to restore the upstream molecular programs that maintain youthful tissue function and stress resistance.
For childhood cancer survivors, this distinction matters. If treatment-induced aging is mechanistically driven, then it may also be therapeutically addressable. The goal is not merely survivorship, but long-term healthspan – preserving cognitive, cardiovascular, and systemic function across decades of life.
As oncology continues to deliver remarkable cures, the next frontier is clear: how we repair the biology of aging itself, so survival does not come at the cost of accelerated decline.”
Title: Accelerated Brain Aging, Atherogenicity, and Neurocognition in Adult Survivors of Childhood Cancer
Authors: Nicholas S. Phillips, Silu Zhang, Jessica Baedke, Qing Ji, Noah D. Sabin, Kirsten K. Ness, Melissa M. Hudson, Yutaka Yasui, Sebabrata Mahapatra, Meenasri Kumbaji, Ruth G. Tatevossian, Matthew A. Scoggins, AnnaLynn M. Williams, Kevin R. Krull
More posts featuring Ron DePinho on OncoDaily.