Cancer and Aging Program

The Cancer and Aging Program studies the dynamic and complex process by which cancer cells develop and change within the body throughout life, with particular emphasis on middle- to late-life events. The program captures the multifaceted process involving genetic, molecular, spatial and temporal dynamics from tissues at cellular and subcellular resolutions over the entire course of life.

The Cancer and Aging Program fosters and supports avenues to understand the relationship between cancer and aging, with improvements in cancer outcomes, treatment and progression in the older population.

Focus areas

The program focuses on facilitating research to improve care and treatment for older adults with cancer. Basic research is aligned with clinical interest and novel technologies and data analysis tools.

Our research includes:

  • Evolutionary models of cancer, including mosaicism.
  • Treatment resistance through temporal evolution.
  • Spatial heterogeneity.
  • The impact of artificial intelligence on modeling tumor features and growth.
  • Biomarkers.
  • Stem cells and mechanisms of resistant disease.
  • Spatial interaction of tumor cells with their microenvironment.
  • Metastatic niches.
  • Cancer from infancy to older age.
  • Longitudinal cancer cohorts.
  • The impact of the aging environment on tumorigenesis.

This program benefits from interdisciplinary research by combining experimental findings with clinical expertise and computational know-how.

Questions of interest include:

  • How does cancer evolve over the human life span, and which drivers are key components?
  • How does a cancer cell interact with its surroundings in different sites around the body, and how does this interaction change over time?
  • What intrinsic changes occurring with age support neoplastic transformation, treatment resistance and reemergence?

Keys steps

Key steps we're taking through this program include:

  • Fostering new collaborations between the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center and Kogod Center on Aging.
  • Identifying key gaps in the understanding of cancer in the older population and disseminating the means to support research into those areas.
  • Establishing a basis for joint extramural funding applications between the Cancer Center and Kogod Center on Aging.
  • Supporting discovery science in the space of age-associated tumorigenesis.