A study of 3535 consecutive autopsied patients over 65 years of age showed that 1,149 patients (32.5%) had one or more cancers. Males were affected by cancer nearly twice as frequently as females in this elderly population (40.3% vs. 23.9%). There were more incidental neoplasms as age advanced. Among the common cancers, the most frequent incidental cancers were those of the prostate gland, kidney, and colon. Cancer tended to metastasize less frequently in the elderly. Several possibilities have been proposed to explain the paucity of metastases in later life.

Various phenomena of life are typically explained by the physical sciences. Although the biological structures of a living being are subject to physical laws, we suggest that life, information, and consciousness are biological phenomena that are not. In this paper, we present new concepts and viewpoints about the very nature of biology. Life, information, and consciousness are identified as a unique set of biological phenomena that are common to only and all living beings. These three distinct phenomena always occur together in a whole pattern, and matter is viewed as the carrier of these phenomena. We explore the unique characteristics of life, information, and consciousness, and their relationships to one another. The experiences and behaviors of human beings, our presentday knowledge of biology, and some organisms' simple behaviors that we can observe are used to understand these biological phenomena. A distinction between genetic information and nongenetic information is also made, and their importance to life is emphasized. The interactions of biological activities between living beings and their environments are explained in the context of improving their chance of survival. Additionally, consciousness is simplified and exemplified via five categories from a hierarchical perspective, and various types of death are discussed. ARTICLE HISTORY