Joint Analyses of Longitudinal Measurements of Physiological Indices and Cancer Incidence Rates

Konstantin G. Arbeev, Duke University
Dora Il’yasova, Duke University
Svetlana V. Ukraintseva, Duke University
Igor Akushevich, Duke University
Alexander Kulminski, Duke University
Liubov Arbeeva, Duke University
Irina V. Culminskaya, Duke University
Deqing Wu, Duke University
Anatoliy I. Yashin, Duke University

We investigated how different mechanisms regulating age-dynamics of physiological indices may affect the risk of onset of cancer applying the stochastic process model of aging to data on ages at onset of cancer (all sites but skin) and longitudinal measurements of hematocrit in the Framingham Heart Study (original cohort). The analyses showed that such aging-related processes as decline in resistance to stresses and adaptive capacity, and accumulation of allostatic load may contribute to an increase in the risk of onset of cancer with age. The results indicated the presence of substantial gender differences in decline in stress resistance with age, as well as in the baseline incidence rates, which contributes to the difference in the shape of the sex-specific patterns of cancer incidence rates. The underlying determinants of such differences (which may be of genetic or non-genetic origin) require additional studies.