Ageing immune system link to cancer

The key to cancer prevention may lie in an ageing immune system rather than genetics, according to researchers.

Researchers from the universities of Edinburgh, Dundee and Heriot Watt, and the Institut Curie in France, found a declining immune system may be a stronger reason for developing cancer. Men are more likely than women to be diagnosed and the chance of developing the disease rises with age.

Researchers analysed the data on two million cancer patients over the 18-70 age range and developed a mathematical equation for how they would expect cancer incidence to rise. The immune system, researchers found, generally declines slower in women than men, allowing them to account for gender differences in cancer incidence.