The impact of aging on bladder cancer
Description: The biggest risk for getting cancer is aging. Over half of all cases and 70% of deaths from cancer happen in adults over 65. As the global average age increases, so is the number of people getting cancer. By 2030, the cost of dealing with cancer in the US will go up by 34%, reaching $246 billion. But surprisingly, most research on cancer does not consider aging. Most preclinical studies use young mice that do not reflect how humans get cancer as they age. Additionally, older adults are often not included in clinical trials of new cancer treatments. We aim to address this important gap by using aged mice in a preclinical study.
Bladder cancer is the most age-associated cancer, with the highest average age of all cancers at diagnosis of 73 years old. In the US in 2024, nearly 17,000 people are expected to die from bladder cancer, and this will increase each year. Unfortunately, new therapeutic approaches like immunotherapy do not show great effects in bladder cancer.
Changes in metabolism, how our bodies use energy and building blocks, are linked to both aging and cancer. But we do not know how metabolism changes as we age. Understanding these changes could help explain why older people are more likely to get cancer and help find better treatments for different age groups. To address this, we made an atlas showing how metabolism changes as mice age in 12 different organs, including the bladder. We found that the bladder metabolism changes drastically during aging. In this proposal, we will use these metabolic changes to uncover why bladder cancer is increased in older adults, and identify new targets to treat bladder cancer specifically in older adults.
Funder: American Cancer Society
Amount: $946,000
Funding type: award
Start date: 2026-10-01
End date: 2030-09-30
Investigator: Peter Mullen
Institution: University of Southern California (USC)
Funded outputs count: 0
Funder award ID: RSG-26-1616464-01-CCB-W25
OpenAlex ID: G3806907252