Cancer Midterm

Front 1

If a "mutagen" is a chemical that causes mutations, and a "carcinogen" is a chemical that causes cancer, what would be the most likely relationship between the two?

Back 1

a chemical that is a mutagen is very likely to also be a carcinogen

Front 2

Deaths from cancer (all cancers put together), has shown what change in the past 6 years?

Back 2

A decline of 1-2%

Front 3

The 1964 Surgeon General’s report struck a major blow in the war on cancer by declaring

Back 3

Cigarette smoking is a major cause of lung cancer

Front 4

The second leading cause of death in the United States is ________ right after ________ .

Back 4

cancer, heart disease

Front 5

For a single cell to become dangerous to the individual, it needs to

Back 5

divide inappropriately, and enter a blood vessel so that it can travel to new sites and set up new centers of growth, and learn how to get new blood vessels to grow toward it so that it can acquire the nutrients it needs for growth

Front 7

Federal funding for cancer research has __________ the need by qualified researchers to find a cure for the different kinds of cancer

Back 7

not kept up with

Front 8

Of the following, the most common site of cancer in men is

Back 8

prostate

Front 9

In general, the “mortality rate” for cancer is __________ in the last decade

Back 9

decreasing slowly

Front 10

Our recognition of cancer as a distinct type of disease goes back to who?

Back 10

Greek “father of medicine” -- Hippocrates

Front 11

How do growth control systems contribute to cancer?

Back 11

they are normal and essential components of the cellular machinery, and don't easily go bad, but can have disastrous consequences when they go bad

Front 12

One reason not all of us get cancer is:

Back 12

our cells have safeguard systems that are capable of protecting us even when the growth control systems go bad

Front 13

The most common site of cancer in women is

Back 13

breast cancer

Front 14

Compared to the rest of the population, African-American populations, especially men, tend to have lower or higher rates of dying of cancer?

Back 14

higher

Front 15

What is the most realistic statement regarding getting cancer?

Back 15

Getting cancer is largely a consequence of living such long lives, and would still occur to at least some of us in our old age even in an ideal world of natural foods and clean air

Front 16

Which type of cell seems most likely to collect the changes required to allow it to become a cancer cell?

Back 16

Cells that divide constantly, such as blood cells

Front 17

If you are a nonsmoker, your best chance for reducing your risk of cancer would involve

Back 17

Paying attention to your diet and exercise

Front 18

In 1900, cancer was #8 in causes of death, yet today it is #2. Why?

Back 18

The major causes of death in 1900 have been largely eliminated due to better drinking water, sanitation, and health care, so now people live long enough to get cancer.

Front 19

The difference between a chronic leukemia and an acute leukemia is

Back 19

A chronic leukemia may take several years to be lethal, whereas an acute leukemia can lead to death in a few months.

Front 20

The BCR-ABL translocation found in CML illustrates the role of ____ in the generation of a cancer cell.

Back 20

growth factor pathways

Front 21

A benign tumor differs from a malignant one in that

Back 21

a benign tumor is an abnormal growth that has stayed in the tissue layer from which it originated, whereas a malignant tumor is an abnormal growth that has invaded adjacent tissues and metastasized to other parts of the body

Front 22

AML, acute myeloid leukemia, is presented in the text as an example of a cancer caused by

Back 22

breaks in the chromosomes that lead to translocations and gene fusions

Front 23

What is the most realistic way of looking at cancer?

Back 23

Getting cancer is largely a consequence of living such long lives, and would still occur to at least some of us in our old age even in an ideal world of natural foods and clean air

Front 24

One complication that arises from chemotherapy for leukemia (and other cancers) is

Back 24

The chemo drugs kill cells that are multiplying, and so will kill off all types of blood cells since blood cells are always actively growing.

Front 25

You hear that an acquaintance is being treated for "brain cancer", and on further discussion you find that the doctors have identified that the protein, keratin, is expressed in the "brain cancer" cells. What would you conclude?

Back 25

That the cancer cells in the brain are actually a skin cancer that has metastasized to the brain

Front 26

An acute lymphocytic leukemia would be a cancer that

Back 26

Originates in the bone marrow, from cells committed to a lymphoid lineage, and is fast growing

Front 27

How might we define an oncogene?

Back 27

An oncogene is a gene that is mutated and is a direct contributor to the abnormal properties of the cancer cell.

Front 28

The results of a pap smear come back abnormal: the doctor describes the cells as "dysplastic". An appropriate level of response would be

Back 28

to conclude that a potentially dangerous situation exists, but that cancer is not inevitable and that the cells could be found to be normal upon subsequent examination

Front 29

Why is it useful to understand exactly what the genetic basis of a particular cancer is?

Back 29

The genetic basis of the cancer can determine the treatment, as is the case for CML caused by the BCR-ABL translocation.

Front 30

If a tumor was found that exhibited the following characteristics, how might the doctor and the patient decide to treat it?: T: Tis, N: nearby lymph nodes free of tumor cells, M: no evidence of distant metastases

Back 30

surgery to remove the tumor, followed by frequent observation

Front 31

The fusion gene, BCR-ABL, causes cancer by

Back 31

Short-circuiting a growth factor pathway, so that the cell gets grow instructions in the absence of growth factors.

Front 32

If "hepa-" refers to the liver, a hepatocellular carcinoma would be a

Back 32

a malignant tumor found on the liver, and perhaps elsewhere in the body, made of cells of liver origin

Front 33

Staging is important because

Back 33

It is the first step toward designing treatments for the cancer

Front 34

What are some generalizations regarding which cells are prone to cancer?

Back 34

Cells that are more exposed to the environment (skin), cells that proliferate a lot (blood), and cells that divide and pass on mutations they get to their progeny (stem cells)--all these are more prone to cancer

Front 35

The mechanism by which the chemotherapeutic drug cyclophosphamide kills lymphoma cells is by

Back 35

Damaging the DNA sufficiently to kill the cell

Front 36

A study might be designed to test the hypothesis: smoking cigarettes prevents lung cancer. Based on what we know about lung cancer, such a study would find a coefficient of correlation that was

Back 36

Strongly negative, disproving the hypothesis that smoking prevents lung cancer

Front 37

The observation that heavy cigarette smokers have a 20-fold increased risk for lung cancer means

Back 37

Cigarette smokers are 20 times more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer than nonsmokers

Front 38

A new drug prospect must be extensively tested for safety and efficacy (effectiveness) before achieving approval for use; in which stages of the testing are potential drugs tested in humans?

Back 38

Humans are used in phase I, II, and III trials only, after safety has been demonstrated in preclinical trials.

Front 39

What does the bcl-2 protein do to contribute to the formation of the cancer cell in follicular lymphoma?

Back 39

Bcl-2 prevents the cell from dying, which it should normally do if it fails to recognize an invader.

Front 40

Follicular lymphoma involves translocations of which gene?

Back 40

BCL, which normally plays a role in the programmed cell death of used up blood cells

Front 41

Which cell type has become most fully matured before becoming a cancer cell?

Back 41

Myeloma

Front 42

Treatments for follicular lymphoma include Rituxan (rituximab), a relatively new type of therapeutic compound called

Back 42

a monoclonal antibody

Front 43

Which of the following would ideally be the best study format for analyzing the causes of cancer?

Back 43

Assemble a large random sample from the population and carefully observe their environmental exposures and genetic evidence during their lifetime, and correlate this data to their incidences of various cancers

Front 44

A cohort of identical twins was identified that were separated at birth and raised in different homes. The goal of this study might be to

Back 44

Determine if there was a genetically inherited component to cancer risk

Front 45

The largest number of volunteer patients are recruited for which phase of trials?

Back 45

Phase III trials

Front 46

All cancer treatments suffer from one unfortunate fact of life:

Back 46

Cancer cells are genetically unstable and mutate frequently in ways that make them resistant to a given cancer treatment.

Front 47

The difference between lymphoma cells and leukemia cells is

Back 47

Lymphoma cells are more mature than leukemia cells, and are in the lymph nodes, whereas leukemia cells remain in the bone marrow.

Front 48

What is a hybridoma?

Back 48

a cancer cell produced in the laboratory by fusing cancerous myeloma cells with normal antibody-producing B-cells.

Front 49

What is the role of normal B-cells?

Back 49

make antibodies to fight pathogens and invaders.

Front 50

Which group is likely to have the higher incidence of cancer?

Back 50

A group of 80 year olds that have spent their lives smoking, hanging out at the beach all day, and eating all their meals at McDonalds

Front 51

In analyzing epidemiological data on cancer, it is important to make adjustments to the data to account for

Back 51

the age of the population

Front 52

When monoclonal antibodies are produced, an immortal myeloma is fused with a plasma cell, leading to a hybrid cell. The result is:

Back 52

The hybrid cell has properties of both cells: immortal growth and antibody production.

Front 53

Epidemiological studies on skin cancer leave us with what big take-home lesson on skin cancer?

Back 53

Skin cancer is largely preventable

Front 54

What controls the sites to which a tumor can metastasize?

Back 54

Tumor cells can initially travel to any site to which they have access, but will readily establish a new focus of growth in those few tissues for which the “soil” matches the “seed”

Front 55

Are there properties of normal breast epithelia which make it relatively easy for the cells of this tissue to undergo the progression to cancer?

Back 55

Yes: Proliferation, invasion, and angiogenesis are all properties shared by normal breast epithelia and cancer cells, which may contribute to the ease by which breast tissue can become cancerous

Front 56

What is meant by the phrase “cancer is clonal”?

Back 56

Since many changes must occur in a single cell for the cell to become a cancer cell, most cancers arise from a single cell that has undergone all the changes.

Front 57

DNA damage caused by exposure to sunlight (UV light) will

Back 57

have to be repaired before the cell cycle can resume, prevent successful replication of the DNA genome, & stop the cell cycle at the R point.

Front 58

Checkpoints occur throughout the cell cycle; the checkpoint that most concerns us in our study of cancer is where in the cell cycle?

Back 58

at the boundary between the G1 phase and the S phase

Front 59

The breast cancer drugs, tamoxifen and Herceptin, are similar in that

Back 59

They both act by interfering with growth signals that the cancer cell depends on

Front 60

How are the roles of estrogen in breast cancer and testosterone in prostate cancer similar?

Back 60

They are both hormones that normally control tissue proliferation, and can be required for continued proliferation of the cells even after they become cancer cells

Front 61

Growth factor signals that promote division act by

Back 61

activating cyclin-dependent kinase

Front 62

Prostate cancer and breast cancer share which property in common?

Back 62

both arise from ductal epithelial cells that are under hormonal control

Front 63

The cell cycle is a process in which

Back 63

the alternation between division and the non-dividing interphase is tightly controlled at checkpoints, which ensure that cells reproduce only when it is appropriate

Front 64

At which stage is it least likely that a breast cancer might be detectable by standard screening practices?

Back 64

Carcinoma in situ

Front 65

The restriction point is controlled by an internal clock mechanism made of

Back 65

Cyclin

Front 66

A genetic predisposition to breast cancer can be caused by getting

Back 66

one mutated copy of BRCA1 or BRCA2 from the father or mother

Front 67

Hormone-like molecules that influence cell division are called

Back 67

growth factors

Front 68

What is the major environmental risk factors for lung cancer?

Back 68

Cigarette smoking

Front 69

How are tumor suppressor genes compared to oncogenes?

Back 69

the opposite of oncogenes, in that they normally provide a mechanism that stops cells from dividing inappropriately

Front 70

Inheritance of a bad copy of which gene can predispose one to melanoma?

Back 70

P16

Front 71

The term signal transduction refers to

Back 71

the intracellular events that follow binding of a hormone to a cell surface receptor

Front 72

Which statement is true of both lung cancer and skin cancer?

Back 72

once metastasis has occurred, the chances of being cured are not good.

Front 73

Name 3 tumor suppressor genes/proteins

Back 73

BRCA1, P53, Rb

Front 74

The most common skin cancer is called ___, whereas the most dangerous skin cancer is ___.

Back 74

basal cell carcinoma, melanoma

Front 75

Colorectal cancer is caused by

Back 75

several mutations in both oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes

Front 76

A key component of P53 action is to

Back 76

turn on the production of a protein which inhibits the cyclin-CDK complex

Front 77

The action of P16 is most similar to the action of

Back 77

Rb

Front 78

The tumor suppressor Rb is named for

Back 78

the cancer associated with it, retinoblastoma

Front 79

In a large proportion of “small-cell” lung cancer (~90%), what happens to Rb and P53?

Back 79

both copies of Rb and P53 are lost

Front 80

How does cachexia differ from normal weight loss?

Back 80

in cachexia, muscle mass is lost as readily as fat

Front 81

The difference between oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes is

Back 81

oncogenes, when normal, promote cell division, whereas tumor suppressor genes, when normal, inhibit cell division