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The common biology of cancer and ageing

Abstract

At first glance, cancer and ageing would seem to be unlikely bedfellows. Yet the origins for this improbable union can actually be traced back to a sequence of tragic—and some say unethical—events that unfolded more than half a century ago. Here we review the series of key observations that has led to a complex but growing convergence between our understanding of the biology of ageing and the mechanisms that underlie cancer.

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Figure 1: The potential interplay between stem cells, stress, ageing and cancer.
Figure 2: Revisiting the telomere hypothesis: role of telomeres in cancer and ageing.
Figure 3: The potential role of autophagy in cancer and ageing.
Figure 4: Energy signal transduction.
Figure 5: A stem cell perspective on cancer and ageing.

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Acknowledgements

We thank members of our laboratory for helpful discussions and I. Rovira for help with the manuscript. This work was supported by grants from the NIH Intramural program and Ellison Medical Foundation (T.F.), the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (M.S., M.A.B.), the European Union (M.S., M.A.B.) and the Josef Steiner Award (M.A.B.).

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Finkel, T., Serrano, M. & Blasco, M. The common biology of cancer and ageing. Nature 448, 767–774 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05985

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