If blowing out the candles on your 100th birthday cake is a pillar of your retirement plan, you might want to skip to the next article.

An analysis of death data from the world’s longest-lived populations reveals that the rapid improvements in life expectancy achieved in the 20th century have slowed dramatically in the past three decades.

The finding suggests that if 100 is to become the new 80, radical new medicines that slow the ageing process itself are needed, rather than better treatments for common killers such as cancer, dementia and heart disease.