In contrast to the previous trend with age
What's the contrast? Isn't the situation exactly the same, statistically distinguishable, but practically meaningless?
The contrast is the type of trend. In samples from people who got cancer age had a greater correlation with short telomeres. However, in samples from patients in the three or four years immediately before cancer diagnosis, there was a significantly longer telomere length.
People who will get cancer's telomeres shorten more rapidly with age, but are longer right before they get cancer. It's a dynamic process and it's apparently got some weird complications to it. Mostly interesting to me because it suggests body-wide mechanisms of telomere regulation that have something to do with cancer genesis.
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