There is a class of drugs called senolytic drugs. They are dubbed as drugs that specifically target senescent (aged) cells.
Removing senescent cells from the body can make animals "younger". This (surprising?) result was initially shown in early 2010's with mice with genetic tricks that allow conditional elimination of senescent cells from the body.
Encouraged by the result, senescent cells-targeting drugs were sought, with hopes of applying the drug to actually eliminate senescent cells from the body. The drugs are mainly investigated in aging research field, but also of interest of cosmetic industry (no surprise).
In this past a few years, reports on senolytic drugs are rapidly accumulating.
Examples of senolytic drugs are; curcumin (a compound in Turmeric), quercetin (found in onion skin), fisetin (a bioflavonoid), and Dasatinib (an anti-cancer drug that targets growth signaling).
Here is a review article with historical recount from their viewpoint that I found well-presented.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7405395/
From the eyes of cancer prevention researchers, the senolytic drugs look strangely familiar. Because they are cancer prevention drugs and cancer drugs.
Even after decades of studies, targets of established (read: proven effective in lab and in clinic) cancer drugs are relatively limited, including DNA metabolism, mitotic spindle, growth signaling, and immune checkpoint.
In addition, for cancer prevention, compounds affecting microenvironment, oxidative stress, inflammation, etc, are proven effective.
Science can be driven by hypothesis. At the same time, something "that works but we have no idea why"-kind of things can give us scientists an important clue about background biology in medicine. Many of dietary compounds belonged to the latter. A branch of cancer prevention studies has been about dietary compounds that indeed can prevent cancer development.
Then, back to the statement;
"Many senolytic drug are, actually, cancer drugs, or cancer prevention drugs."
I found this interesting, and running some research on it.
As a professional scientist, the research better be more serious and better stand up against academic scrutiny, than the "research" by amateur "experts" in covid era.
Got to hold my research standard high.
