Cancer Flashcards
What is a tumour?
Any kind of mass forming a lesion.
What is neoplasm?
Autonomous growth of tissue that has escaped normal constraints of cell proliferation.
What can neoplasm be divided into?
Benign (remains localised) and malignant(invades locally or spreads to distant sites).
What are cancers?
Malignant neoplasms - Escaped normal constraints of cell proliferation and can invade locally or spread to distant sites.
What is a hamartoma?
Benign overgrowth. Disorganised mass and is slow growing.
What is a heterotopia?
Normal tissue in the wrong place.
What is a teratoma?
Tumours derived from germ cells. Can contain tissue from 3 germ cell layers and can contain cancers.
What is the general rule for tumour suffixes?
oma = benign and sarcoma = malignant soft tissue tumour.
What malignant tumours end in ‘oma’?
Lymphoma, Melanoma, Hepatoma and Teratoma (not all malignant).
What does cancer grade refer to?
Tissue architecture. How much does it look like compared to the normal physiological state.
What may you see if you look at cancer cells?
High nucleo-cytoplasmic ratio. Abnormal mitosis (tripolar - 3 daughter cells).
How do malignant tumours spread?
Direct extension - invasion
Blood vessels - usually veins and capillaries as they have thinner walls
Lymphatic system
Transcoelomic - Metastasis across a cavity
Perineural - Spread around a nerve.
How do cancer cells spread by direct extension?
Desmoplastic response - fibroblast proliferation. Angiogenesis.
What does cancer stage mean?
How much tumour has spread.
TNM system breakdown
T = Tumour size or local invasion
N = Number of lymph nodes involved
M = Presence of metastases
