Cancer

Front 1

What are the steps in invasion and thus metastasis?

Back 1

local invasion of basement membrane, attachment and intravasation, movement in lymphatic or blood vessel system, attachment and extravasation, invasion of distant tissue, growth in distant site.

Front 2

what is an epigenetic risk factor?

Back 2

any factor that will influence the espression of an actual genetic risk.

Front 3

Examples of risky diet and life style practices:

Back 3

caffeine (good and bad)
nitrates in drinking water
heterocyclic amines in chargrilled meat
smoking, dipping... duh

Front 4

Of rural vs. urban people, who are more susceptable to cancer?

Back 4

rural

Front 5

What gleason scales are generally low, moderate, and high?

Back 5

<6 is low, 7 is moderate, 8-10 is high.

Front 6

List some tumor cell properties that facilitate metastasis

Back 6

-production of growth factors and their receptors
-production of angiogenic factors
-motility, invasiveness, aggregation, deformability
-specefic cell surface receptors and adhesion molecules

Front 7

List some tumor cell properties that limit metastasis.

Back 7

-antigenicity
-inhibitors of angiogenesis
-cohesion (E-cadherin)
-tissue inhibitors of proteolytic enzymes

Front 8

List some host cell properties that facilitate metastasis:

Back 8

-paracrine and endocrine growth factors
-neovascularization
-platelets and their products
-immune cells and their products

Front 9

List some host cell properties that inhibit metastasis:

Back 9

-tissue barriers
-blood turbulence, endothelial cells
-tissue inhibitors of proteolytic enzymes
-antiproliferative factors
-inhibitors of angiogenesis

Front 10

Distinguish between angiogenesis and vasculogenesis.

Back 10

angiogenesis is the recruitment of endothelial cells from existing vessels while vasculogenesis is activation of endothelial cell precursors

Front 11

In terms of metastasis, what happens if the primary tumor is removed? What does this suggest?

Back 11

Metastasis increases suggesting that the tumor itself produces inhibitory substances.

Front 12

Distinguish between direct and indirect inhibitors of angiogenesis.

Back 12

Direct inhibitors affect the endothelium and its response to stimuli. Indirect inhibitors affect affect the tumor cell's expression of angiogenic growth factors.

Front 13

distinguish between the two components of a neoplasm.

Back 13

The parenchyma is the neoplastic cells that determine the tumor's biological behavior and the stroma is the non-neoplastic supportative tissue.

Front 14

List the general benign neoplasms of epithelial origin.

Back 14

adenoma, papilloma, cystadenoma, papillary cystadenoma, polyp

Front 15

List the general benign neoplasms of mesenchymal origin.

Back 15

Fibroma, lipoma, osteoma, chondroma

Front 16

list the general benign neoplasms of endothelial origin (or related tissue).

Back 16

hemangioma, lymphoma, leiomyoma (smooth muscle), rhabdomyoma (striated muscle)

Front 17

what is a tumor that is composed of more than one neoplastic cell type and is derived from more than one germ layer?

Back 17

teratoma

Front 18

what are the three main types of carcinomas?

Back 18

adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, transitional cell carcinoma.

Front 19

Define anaplasia

Back 19

loss of differentiation, a typical sign of malignancy

Front 20

dysplastic cells that involve the entire epithelial thickness and do not penetrate the basement membrane are refered to as...

Back 20

carcinoma in situ

Front 21

Carcinomas usually spread via what route? Sarcomas usually spread via what route?

Back 21

carcinomas usually spread via lymphatics (but some like hepatocellular and renal carcinomas spread via blood) Sarcomas usually spread hematogeneously

Front 22

what is the big difference genetically between solid tumors and hematopoetic tumors?

Back 22

solid tumors are generally heterogeneous while hematopoetic tumors are generally clonal

Front 23

Burkitt's lymphoma is caused by a translocation of chromosomes 8 and 14. What is the molecular result of this translocation?

Back 23

The oncogene MYC is constitutively expressed via the promoter of the IgH gene that the MYC gene becomes attached to.

Front 24

How does Gleevec work?

Back 24

The philadelphia chromosome causes chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). This causes joining of BCR-ABL thus constitutive expression of an RTK. Gllevec binds this RTK and inhibits it.

Front 25

What is the difference between tumor suppressors and oncogenes?

Back 25

Oncogenes sustain gain of function mutations and their presence leads to cancer. Tumor suppressors sustain loss of function mutations and this loss of function leads to cancer.

Front 26

What are the basic characteristics of prostate cancer?

Back 26

Most common malignancy in men, very high prevalence (could be considered an age related event), second leading cause of male cancer-related deaths in the western world, not invariably lethal, very heterogeneous disease.

Front 27

Which oncogene is most often found altered in pancreatic cancer?

Back 27

Ras

Front 28

What type of cancer specefic mutations occur in the Ras protein?

Back 28

P21 Ras activating mutations lock Ras in a GTP bound state.

Front 29

What are common cancer susceptibility syndromes and the mutations that cause them?

Back 29

Retinoblastoma (pRb), Li-Fraumeni Syndrome (p53), Wilms Tumor (WTI), Hereditary colon cancer (APC), and neurofibramatousis (NFI)

Front 30

What is the etiology of cervical cancer?

Back 30

HPV infection can initiate a series of steps which lead to cervical cancer.

Front 31

List evidence supporting immune surveillance.

Back 31

-immune deficinet patients have increased cancer susceptability.
-organ transplant patients on immunosuppressives are more susceptalbe
-a rare syndrome shows variation in immunity and correlating variations in cancer severity
-Chediak-Higashi patiens (lack NK cells and Macs) are more susceptable
-Ovarian cancer patients with more Tc cells in the tumor have a better prognosis
-down regulation of MHC I's in colon cancer correlates with a poor prognosis.

Front 32

List evidence against immune surveillance.

Back 32

Immunodeficient patients typically have higher incidence of hematologic and other rare cancers, not the common ones, and organ transplant patients on immunosuppressives do not show susceptability to all cancers, just select types.

Front 33

What are approved immunotherapy approaches to cancer?

Back 33

inflammation from dead BCG bacteria in bladder cancer, transfer of activated lymphocytes and IL-2 in kidney cancer and melanoma, monoclonal Ab's to Her2 receptor in breast cancer, and vaccine for HPV.

Front 34

What are some experimental immunotherapy approaches to cancer?

Back 34

anti-tumor vaccines, use of tumor specefic monoclonal Ab's, adoptive cell transfer, enhancing tumor immunogenecity by transfecting costimulatory genes and/or cytokine genes.

Front 35

What are the roles and mechanisms of dendritic cells in immunity to cancer?

Back 35

They cross present tumor Ag's to MHCI's to activate CD8's to kill tumor cells. They can also present Ag to B cells which will then secrete Ab specefic for the tumor.