Cancer is generally associated with aging because, with age, genetic mutations accumulate in cells, increasing the risk that they will escape their normal programming and become dangerous. But in some rare cases, this harmful process begins in childhood. Pediatric cancers account for fewer than 2% of cancers reported in high-income countries. And the majority of these childhood cancers are not attributable to mutations present in the parents, making it difficult to understand the causes. Researchers at the University of Bergen, Norway, may have found the explanation for these cases of early-onset cancer: in a study published on October 14, 2026, in the journal Frontiers in Immunology They show that these patients often have antibodies that target their own body… including DNA repair mechanisms, which could explain this rapid accumulation of genetic mutations that lead to their cancer.
Children with cancer have specific autoantibodies
This discovery stemmed from a prior observation: in cancer patients, genetic mutations can alter proteins to such an extent that the body no longer recognizes them and attacks them with antibodies. These new autoantibodies can then mistakenly target the non-mutated version of the protein.
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