Epigenetic age acceleration among survivors of pediatric medulloblastoma and primitive neuroectodermal tumor.

ABSTRACT

Survivors of childhood central nervous system (CNS) tumors experience early-onset aging-related phenotypes. DNA methylation (DNAm) age is an emerging epigenetic biomarker of physiologic age and may be predictive of chronic health conditions in long-term survivors. This report describes the course of epigenetic age acceleration using post-diagnosis blood samples (median 3.9 years post-diagnosis; range 0.04-15.96) from 83 survivors of pediatric CNS tumors. Epigenetic age acceleration was detected in 72% of patients, with an average difference between chronologic and DNAm age of 2.58 years (95% CI 1.75-3.41, p < 0.001). Time from diagnosis to sample collection correlated with the magnitude of epigenetic age acceleration.