What this means
Some protein aging scores linked to death from any cause. Only one score, the Immune clock, linked to cancer deaths, and no link to new cancers held up.
Plain-English summary written by an AI model from the abstract. The original is below.
- Who it was tested in
- 401 Finnish twins, average age 62, followed about 10 years; early results not yet checked by other scientists
- Kind of research
- Early results, not yet checked by other scientists
The science
- Original title
- Systemic and organ-specific proteomic aging clocks as predictors of cancer incidence and survival: insights from the Finnish Twin Cohort
- Authors
- Lukander, V. M., Kaprio, J. M., Wang, X. et al.
- Journal
- medRxiv (preprint, not yet peer reviewed)
- Published
- Oct 15, 2026
- Study type
- Preprint
Abstract
Despite recent evidence of the ability of systemic and organ-specific proteomic aging clocks to predict a large range of age-related diseases, their utility in cancer research remains largely underexplored. In this study, we evaluated the predictive ability of systemic and organ-specific proteomic aging clocks for (i) all-cause mortality, (ii) cancer-related mortality, and (iii) cancer incidence in a sample of Finnish twins (N = 401, mean age at baseline 62.3 years) with Olink proteomic data. Participants were followed for a mean of 10.6 years (SD +- 1.6), with estimates from four systemic and 18 organ-specific proteomic aging clocks calculated at baseline. Cox proportional hazards regression models adjusted for sex and age at baseline identified 15 proteomic aging clocks as significant predictors of all-cause mortality (Ncases = 28) after multiple testing correction (FDR < 0.05), with 11 remaining significant after lifestyle adjustment (Ncases = 27). For several clocks, effect sizes were large, with hazard ratios (HR) approximately doubling per one standard deviation (SD) increase in clock estimates. In predicting cancer-related deaths among participants without a prior cancer diagnosis at baseline (Ncases = 9), only the Immune clock showed a significant positive association after multiple testing correction in basic (HR = 2.94, 95% CI: 1.88-4.59) and lifestyle-adjusted models (HR = 3.31, 95% CI: 1.78-6.17). No associations with cancer incidence (Ncases = 34 basic, Ncases = 31 adjusted) survived multiple testing correction, although several nominal associations were observed. In conclusion, our findings suggest that proteomic aging clocks are strong predictors of all-cause and cancer-specific mortality, independent of lifestyle factors. Proteomic aging clocks may further serve as valuable tools for stratifying cancers by mortality risk.
Lukander, V. M., Kaprio, J. M., Wang, X. et al. Systemic and organ-specific proteomic aging clocks as predictors of cancer incidence and survival: insights from the Finnish Twin Cohort. medRxiv. 2026. doi:10.64898/2026.10.14.26365410. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.10.14.26365410