Research Information System
International Journal of Exergy, vol.34, no.4, pp.411-423, 2021 (SCI-Expanded)
The lifespan entropy generation limit concept suggests that living beings die after generating a definite amount of lifespan entropy, since their bodies cannot tolerate accumulating more damage. A healthy person, who has a lifespan of 78.6 years may generate 11,404 kJ/kg K of nutrition-related lifespan entropy. If that person should be diagnosed with cancer at the age of 40, he/she would have already generated 5,803 kJ/kg K of nutrition-related entropy and may generate 5,593 kJ/kg K of more entropy until dying. After the onset of the disease, approximately 97 kJ/kg K of entropy may be generated via nutrition-related metabolic activity in five years. In lung cancer, disease-related entropy generation is 191 fold of that of the diet-related entropy generation and this is nine folds in skin cancer. This study points out that a very high fraction of the lifespan entropy generated by the cancer patients is fueled not by diet, but by tissue-scavenging, slowing down the scavenging-related chemical activity may actually increase the lifespan of the patients.