Long lifespan inhibits tumors

Mutations that lengthen a worm's lifespan also inhibit tumor growth, according to a study in this week's Science. The authors found that mutant Caenorhabditis elegans worms that live twice as long show increased cell death and decreased cell division in tumor cells. The finding is the latest in a string of phenotypes that have been linked to longevity mutants, including resistance to memory loss, muscle deterioration, and pathogenic microorganisms."I think that these longevity pathways are allowing cells to protect themselves better against damage," said senior author Cynthia Kenyon, director of the Hillblom Center for the Biology of Aging at the University of California, San Francisco. "There's something about this more stress-resistant state that seems to increase lifespan and also disadvantage a tumor," she said.Previous work in mice has shown that calorie reduction or mutations in the insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) signaling pathway confer both a...