Anticancer Therapy

Question 1

what are the stages of the commonly used/simple staging system

Answer 1

0 - primary site/no invasion to surrounding tissues
1 - small or localized/no invasion to surrounding tissues
2 - larger than I/no invasion to surrounding tissues
3 - increased size, lymph nodes metastasis starting to invade surrounding tissues
4 - metastasized to other organs

Question 2

what are the stages of the TNM staging system

Answer 2

T (primary tumor) - 1 = small, 4 = large
N (lymph nodes) - 0 = no LN meastasis 3 = significant LN cancer presence
M (metastasis) - 0 = no metastasis or 1 = metastasised to other organs

Question 3

this is involves descrpitive differences of normal and malignant cells under the microscope

Answer 3

cancer grades (severity of cancer)

Question 4

list the three grades of cancer

Answer 4

1 - similar, slow growth
2 - different and growing fast
4 - very different and growing very fast

Question 5

what are some factors that can lead to cancer

Answer 5

• age!!!!!!
• genetics
• environment (pollution, food, smoking , lifestyle, etc)

Question 6

this is a mass of cells (Tumor) that lacks the ability to invade neighbouring tissues or metastasize

Answer 6

benign tumor

Question 7

cancer = malignant tumors + _________

Answer 7

leukemia

Question 8

what are the 3 factors that contribute to the probability of cancer (P)?

Answer 8

P = a x b x e

e = probability of oncogenic genes (~ equal for everyone)

a = # of cells division
- aging increased cell dividion
- organ/tissue damage and repair (sun burn, smoking, polluted food, viral infections e.x. HPV, HBV)

b = # of mutations for each cell division
- mainly genetic (e.g. brac1 increases risk of breast and ovarian cancer by 100 fold)

Question 9

what are the 3 ways cancer leads to death?

Answer 9

1. excessive growth leads to organ failure
   - brain tumors, lung cancer, leukemia
2. metastasis to vital organ
   - brain, bone, lung, liver (BBLL)
3. cachexia
   - loss of fat and muscles
   - sepsis (infection -> inflammation -> multiple organ failure)

Question 10

what are some challenges of cancer treatment

Answer 10

1. narrow windows of therapuetic index
   - kills normal cells and tissues
2. heterogeneity of targeted genes (e.g. an ALK inhibitor is only effective in ~1% of lung cancer patients)
3. multi-drug resistance