The evidence is convergent. Multiple independent sources reach the same conclusion, the underlying mechanism is well-characterized, and even the field's most cautious voices treat it as worth doing.
I think another part of it and I clearly I'm not alone in thinking this is that our immune system is getting weaker and weaker as we age right I mean you know we you know people become more susceptible to infections as they get older uh and I think that that's equally playing a role in our susceptibility to cancer
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I certainly over the last few years have come to think that the decline in immune function is it's certainly more important than I had initially thought but that's my I mean I secretly want that to be the biggest driver because I think we have a better chance to control that yeah than some of the other ones and I think it probably is that would be my guess
I certainly over the last few years have come to think that the decline in immune function is it's certainly more important than I had initially that that's my I mean I secretly want that to be the biggest driver because I think we have a better chance to control that
but they all agree that the weakening of the adaptive immune system is almost assuredly playing a role in why we get cancer more as we age
I think that's got to be a big part of it but I think another part of it and I clearly I'm not alone in thinking this is that our immune system is getting weaker and weaker as we age right I mean you know we you know people become more susceptible to infections as they get older uh and I think that that's equally playing a role in our susceptibility to cancer
if we accept that immune surveillance is one important anti-cancer mechanism we know that immune surveillance declines with age so early on we're clearing a lot of our cancers as our immune system declines these cancers are going to escape immune surveillance they're going to accumulate all these mutations they're eventually going to go into uncontrolled cell division
I certainly feel convinced that a big part of why cancer incidence goes up uh exponentially with age is the declining immune system, not just the accumulation of mutations, although I I imagine they both play a role.