BUFFALO, NY — June 16, 2026 — A new #research paper was #published in Volume 18 of Aging on May 22, 2026, titled “Systemic cancer risk profile in neovascular age-related macular degeneration: insights into shared aging-related mechanisms from a nationwide population-based study.” The study was led by first author Hyeong Min Kim and corresponding author Hyewon Chung from Konkuk University College of Medicine and Konkuk University Medical Center in Seoul, Republic of Korea. Neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) is one of the leading causes of severe vision loss in older adults. Although the disease primarily affects the retina, researchers increasingly recognize that it may reflect broader biological processes associated with aging, including chronic inflammation, vascular dysfunction, and immune dysregulation. These same mechanisms have also been implicated in the development of several cancers, raising questions about whether the two conditions may be biologically connected. To explore this possibility, investigators analyzed data from the Korean National Health Insurance Service, one of the world’s largest population-based healthcare databases. The study included 334,091 individuals aged 50 years and older, including 83,742 patients with nAMD and 250,349 matched controls without the disease. Participants were followed for up to 10 years, allowing researchers to evaluate both overall cancer incidence and risks for specific cancer types. The analysis revealed that individuals with nAMD had a modest but statistically significant increase in overall cancer risk compared with matched controls. However, the increased risk was not observed across all cancers. Instead, patients with nAMD showed elevated risks for several specific malignancies, including thyroid, kidney, pancreatic, lung, bladder, and prostate cancers, while no significant associations were found for many other cancer types. Full press release - https://aging-us.net/2026/06/16/common-aging-mechanisms-may-link-vision-loss-disorder-to-increased-risk-of-certain-cancers/ DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.206383 Corresponding author - Hyewon Chung - hchung@kuh.ac.kr Abstract video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hViOqGLYr1Y Sign up for free Altmetric alerts about this article - https://aging.altmetric.com/details/email_updates?id=10.18632%2Faging.206383 Subscribe for free publication alerts from Aging - https://www.aging-us.com/subscribe-to-toc-alerts Keywords - aging, neovascular age-related macular degeneration, cancer, population cohort, polygenic risk, shared susceptibility To learn more about the journal, please visit https://www.Aging-US.com and connect with us on social media at: Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/aging-us.bsky.social ResearchGate - https://www.researchgate.net/journal/Aging-1945-4589 X - https://twitter.com/AgingJrnl Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/AgingUS/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/agingjrnl/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/aging/ Reddit - https://www.reddit.com/user/AgingUS/ Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/AgingUS/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@Aging-US Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1X4HQQgegjReaf6Mozn6Mc MEDIA@IMPACTJOURNALS.COM
