Question: how deadly is cancer and could it be a way to not die of old age because i gathered that cancer can not age.

Freya Harrison answered on 23 Apr 2020: last edited 24 Apr 2020 8:50 am

This is a brilliant question. I know that some of the same molecular process are involved in cancer and ageing, but I’m not a cancer expert. I’m being slow answering because I have just asked some colleagues who are cell biologists this question so I can crowdsource a good answer for you 🙂 I’ll come back and edit this answer when I hear back from them.

UPDATE! I have spoken to my colleague Anne, who is a cell biologist, and she has given me a good answer for you. Anne studies a process called “autophagy” that is linked with both cancer and ageing. Autophagy is like the recycling bin of the cell. It’s how cells get rid of waste that builds up inside them. If this recycling stops working properly, it leads to loads of waste building up inside the cell. Broken recycling systems are found in cancer cells, and also in old cells during normal ageing. Some drugs used to treat cancer work by kickstarting the autophagy process. An example of this is a drug called rapamycin – and rapamycin treatment can also extend lifespan… in worms at least, it has not been tried in people.