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Updated: Feb 16, 2026

Author Spotlight: Advancing the Detection of Low-Frequency Mutations in Cancer Tissues
Published on: August 23, 2024
Aging and the rise of somatic cancer-associated mutations in normal tissues
Rosa Ana Risques1, Scott R Kennedy1
1Department of Pathology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
Abstract:
DNA mutations are inevitable. Despite proficient DNA repair mechanisms, somatic cells accumulate mutations during development and aging, generating cells with different genotypes within the same individual, a phenomenon known as somatic mosaicism. While the existence of somatic mosaicism has long been recognized, in the last five years, advances in sequencing have provided unprecedented resolution to characterize the extent and nature of somatic genetic variation. Collectively, these new studies are revealing a previously uncharacterized aging phenotype: the accumulation of clones with cancer driver mutations. Here, we summarize the most recent findings, which converge in the novel notion that cancer-associated mutations are prevalent in normal tissue and accumulate with aging.
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