title: Cancer and aging: symposium of the 27th annual meeting of the Japanese society for biomedical gerontology, Tokyo.
abstract: Although many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the strong link between aging and cancer, the exact mechanisms responsible for the increased frequency of occurrence of cancer with advancing age have not been fully defined. Recent evidence indicates that malregulation of the apoptotic process may be involved in some aging process as well as in the development of cancer. Although it is still under debate how apoptosis is expressed during aging in vivo, this phenomenon is an important factor in unwinding the complicated mechanisms that link cancer and aging. In this review, we report on the discussion at the symposium of the 27th annual meeting of the Japanese society for biomedical gerontology, regarding recent findings from aging and carcinogenesis studies using animal models, the characteristics of cancer in patients with Werner's syndrome, the epigenetic changes in human cancers and aging, and the characteristics of human cancers in the elderly. It was concluded that apoptosis plays a role in the aging process and carcinogenesis in vivo, likely as an inherent protective mechanism against various kinds of damages to genes/chromosomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Comprehensive Pathology, Aging and Developmental Sciences, Graduate School, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan. masa.pth2@med.tmd.ac.jp
authors.forename: Masanobu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kitagawa
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Utsuyama
authors.forename: Morito
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kurata
authors.forename: Kouhei
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Yasuhito
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yuasa
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
authors.forename: Tomio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Arai
authors.forename: Katsuiku
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hirokawa
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D004249:DNA Damage; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*