The double face of mitochondrial dysfunction

Abstract

Aging is associated with increased manifestation of many diseases. In particular, the chances of cancer increase exponentially starting from middle age. At the same time, there is a convincing evidence that in the case of certain tissues/organs the increase of cancer incidence is followed by a plato or even a decrease of reported cases [1]. As a rule, the decrease starts at the age above 80 years. What could be the reason for such a decline? Possibly, only a small proportion of human population is susceptible to the certain types of cancer and most of such people die at the age of 80 or younger. If so, the age group above 80 will be depleted for people prone to the cancers. Alternatively, several biological explanations for such a decrease were suggested (see [1]): for instance, age-dependent decrease of angiogenesis can suppress tumor growth