T cells, precocious aging, and familial neoplasia

A 15-year-old girl presented with precocious aging and was found to have low levels of active and total T cells. Family history revealed a high familial incidence of cancer on both the maternal and paternal sides, and activ T cell levels were found to be low in several living family members. The patient developed osteogenic sarcoma 13 months after initial study. Since our previous studies have reported low active and total T cells in patients with cancer, the present results suggest that subjects with low active T cells should be monitored frequently to detect possible neoplasia in it early stages. They also suggest that impaired cellular immunity in humans is associated with, if not the cause of, accelerated aging.