Scientists have discovered: chemotherapy causes premature aging of cells

An international team of scientists has systematically investigated for the first time how chemotherapy affects the genes of healthy tissues, and found that many, but not all drugs cause mutations and premature aging of blood cells. The work is published in the journal Nature Genetics (NG).

Analysis of blood cell genomes from 23 patients who received different chemotherapy regimens showed: many classes of chemotherapy drugs do indeed increase the number of mutations in healthy hematopoietic cells. For example, a three-year-old child treated for neuroblastoma had more mutations in their blood than healthy 80-year-olds who had never received chemotherapy.

Scientists identified new "mutational signatures" for different drugs, including four previously unknown ones. For instance, platinum-based drugs carboplatin and cisplatin caused particularly many mutations, while oxaliplatin, belonging to the same class, did not.

Additionally, researchers found that chemotherapy leads to premature aging of the blood stem cell population, which is especially noticeable in children and may increase the risk of secondary cancers in the future.

"For the first time, we have obtained a systematic understanding of the genetic effects of chemotherapy on healthy tissues, in this case - on blood. This lays the foundation for further research on the effects of chemotherapy drugs on other organs and will help optimize treatment to minimize harm," noted the lead author of the work, Dr. Emily Mitchell.

Scientists hope that in the future, genomic analysis will help doctors select chemotherapy regimens that will be maximally effective with minimal harm to healthy tissues.