ALVARO MACIEIRA COELHO
French National Institute of Health and medical research (Inserm), France
Biography
Alvaro MacieiraCoelho has completed his MD from the University of Lisbon, Portugal. He worked as an Intern at the University Hospital, as a Research Associate at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. He has completed his PhD from the Uppsala University, Sweden. He was appointed as the Head of the Department of Cell Pathology, Cancer Institute, Villejuif, France and Research Director at the French National Institute of Health. He has authored 150 Peer-reviewed articles and published nine books. He has received Fritz Verzar prize from University of Vienna; Doctor honoris causa from University of Linköping; Johanan of International Visiting Professor from Mario Negri Institute, Milan; Seeds of Science Career prize, Lisbon.
Abstract
Most scientific literature reports that aging favors the development of cancers. Each type of cancer, however, initiates and evolves differently, and their natural history can start much earlier in life before their clinical manifestations. The incidence of cancers is spread throughout human life span, and is the result of prenatal and postnatal aggressions, individual susceptibility, developmental changes that evolve continuously throughout an individual's life, and time of exposure to carcinogens. Finally, during human senescence, the incidence declines for all cancers. Frequently, the progression of cancers is also slower in aged individuals. There are several possible explanations for the declines in incidence and progression at the tissue, cell, and molecular levels. It is time to ask why some tumors are characteristic of either the young, the adult, or of the time of a decline in the reproductive period, and finally, why the incidence of cancers declines late during human senescence. These questions need to be addressed before the origin of cancers can be understood.