Immune senescence and cancer in elderly patients: Results from an exploratory study

Abstract

Immune senescence is significantly worse in elderly cancer patients than in age-matched controls. The low thymic output and the shorter telomeres in peripheral blood cells of cancer patients may reflect a pre-existing condition which facilitates the onset of malignancies in elderly people.

Comparison between white blood cell count, procalcitonin and C reactive protein as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of infection or sepsis in patients presenting to emergency department

“…It is well known that in elderly people the WBC are not always increased, even in severe sepsis, because of the progressive aging of the bone marrow that results in a decrease of WBC population. In fact, one of the four SIRS findings is to have WBC > 12,000/mm 3 or < 4000/ mm 3 [11,32,33]. When we combined the three biomarkers together for diagnosis of sepsis, there was an increase in the predictive diagnostic value (AUC 0.80, p < 0.0001), even greater than the combination of PCT+WBC (AUC 0.79, p < 0.0001), and of PCT+CRP (AUC 0.71, p < 0.001) ( Figure 2).…”

Shifts in subsets of CD8+ T-cells as evidence of immunosenescence in patients with cancers affecting the lungs: an observational case-control study

“…IRP has an unfavourable prognosis and often results in a shortened life expectancy [ 17 , 50 ]. Since IRP is thought to originate from enhanced antigen exposure and persistent immune stimulation, tumour antigens might play a role in the differences in CD8+ T-cell subpopulations that we observed [ 21 , 35 ]. As we have no information on the immune status of the patients prior to the cancer diagnosis, it cannot be ascertained whether the baseline differences that we observed are prior to or are a consequence of the presence of the cancers.…”

Reversal of epigenetic aging and immunosenescent trends in humans

“…In addition, there is a need to specifically address immunosenescence stemming from thymic involution (Bodey, Bodey, Siegel, & Kaiser, ). Thymic involution leads to the depletion of critical immune cell populations (Arnold, Wolf, Brunner, Herndler‐Brandstetter, & Grubeck‐Loebenstein, ), resulting in a collapse of the T‐cell receptor (TCR) repertoire in humans after the age of ~63 (Naylor et al, ), and is linked to age‐related increases in cancer incidence (Falci et al, ), infectious disease (Ventevogel & Sempowski, ), autoimmune conditions (Goronzy & Weyand, ), generalized inflammation (Goronzy & Weyand, ), atherosclerosis (Dai, Zhang, Wang, Wu, & Liang, ), and all‐cause mortality (Fernando‐Martinez et al, ; Roberts‐Thomson, Whittingham, Youngschaiyud, & Mackay, ; Strindhall et al, ). In contrast, maintained immune function is seen in centenarians (Strindhall et al, ).…”