Introduction to Aging, Cancer, and Age-related Diseases

Abstract

A rising tide of chronic age-dependent diseases, co-morbidities, and geriatric syndromes--a veritable Silver Tsunami--will soon present serious challenges for North America, Europe, Japan, and other industrialized nations. Meanwhile, a growing number of scientists, led by biogerontologists, maintain that the key to blunting the societal impact of large-scale decline and disability among older populations lies with better understanding and potential manipulation of biological mechanisms of aging itself. Well-characterized interventions that slow aging and extend health and vigor in animal models may be forerunners of technologies that preserve additional years of healthy productive life in humans. What will it take to validate these momentous insights from biogerontology and their potential applications for human populations? What are the points of resistance for key opinion leaders and policy makers? And how can biogerontologists make common cause with those outside the discipline to inform larger and more politically powerful audiences?