The medicines that rescue children from cancer carry a quieter consequence: they age the body's healthy cells from within, compressing decades of genetic wear into the brief, brutal window of treatment. Researchers in Gothenburg have now mapped this hidden damage with unprecedented precision, revealing that platinum-based chemotherapy leaves tissue-specific wounds in the liver that were previously unknown to science. The discovery does not indict these life-saving drugs, but it deepens our understanding of why so many survivors carry elevated health risks long after their cancer is gone — and
Chemotherapy causes premature genetic aging in children's healthy cells
Childhood cancer survivors face increased risk of secondary cancers, liver disease, and other health complications later in life due to chemotherapy-induced DNA damage.