The headline is broadly defensible, but the qualifications matter. Effect sizes vary by population, the strongest claims rest on shorter trials, and credible voices push back on how it's typically framed.
and so the question is is it because over time mutations compound is it because there are more mutations as we age or is there a third issue which is um all of those things are happening normally and they're no more abundant when you're 80 than when you're 20 but your immune system can't detect them as well and the truth of it is we didn't come up with an answer but it's probably all of the above
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Bookmarking — the dossier-vs-overview split is the right call. Most of the time I want overview; sometimes I want receipts.
Would love a "what would change this verdict" RSS feed. Sign me up if it exists.
what best explains the increase in cancer incidence with age being in other words what with a primary driver be the reduction in immune surveillance or the length of time to accumulate mutations or the frequency of mutations like I mean yeah it's not an obvious answer and I don't think it has to be just one
is it that our immune system specifically the adaptive immune system is weakening and the balance starts tipping in favor of cancer and you know I've asked this question of Nobel laureates and future Nobel laureates every one of them has said we don't know they suspect it's all of the above 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
Consider two hypotheses. One is as we get older, our genome is more susceptible to injury. Consider three. Two, as we get older and we've accumulated more of these, the probability that they can start to layer and stack and you get the phenotype that's not advantaged. Three, the immune system loses some of its steam and therefore the radar window in which you can detect cancer narrows basically, or the ability to detect all of the above, one of the above, all of the above.