Supercentenarians have hypervigilant immune systems that fight off cancer
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- Kousuke Hashimoto at the University of Osaka led the small study finding that CD4 cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CD4 CTLs) — cells that identify and kill threats like cancer — climb from 4% of total T cells in 70- to 99-year-olds to nearly 10% in centenarians to over 17% in those aged 110+.
- The cohort included just 28 people: 8 aged 70-99, 10 aged 100-109, and 10 aged 110+ — a substantial slice of Japan's roughly 150 supercentenarians, according to the national census cited by Hashimoto.
- Hashimoto's team found CD4 CTLs in supercentenarians showed no signs of T-cell exhaustion — the reduced ability to kill cancerous or virus-infected cells — suggesting the cells may contribute to cancer immunosurveillance in extreme old age.
- Manel Esteller at the Sant Pau Research Institute in Barcelona, who previously profiled María Branyas Morera (the world's oldest woman until her 2024 death at 117), said supercentenarians are 'enriched' in immune cells that attack threats, noting Branyas withstood many infections and was asymptomatic when she contracted covid-19.
- The researchers published the work in Cell Reports (DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2026.117728), saying they hope to identify what triggers CD4 CTL expansion and whether that response could eventually be reproduced in other people to fight cancer.
Why it matters: If researchers can identify what triggers CD4 CTL expansion in supercentenarians and reproduce that response, Hashimoto says it could eventually be harnessed to fight cancer in others — though the study's foundation rests on just 10 supercentenarians, so clinical application remains distant.
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