Question 1

Carcinomas

Accepted Answer

cancers that a rise from epithelial cells ~ 90% of cancers ~ solid

Question 2

Sarcomas

Accepted Answer

cancers that originate in supporting tissues e.g. bone (osteo), fibrous tissue (fibre) or muscle (myo) ~ solid

Question 3

Leukemias

Accepted Answer

cancer of leukocytes, malignant blood cells that proliferate in the blood stream ~ liquid

Question 4

Lymphomas

Accepted Answer

cancers of lymphocytes, typically form solid masses in lymph nodes ~ liquid

Question 5

Driver gene mutation

Accepted Answer

mutation that directly or indirectly confers a selective growth advantage to the cell in which it occurs (cancer requires a collection, 5-8, of driver mutations)

Question 6

Passenger mutation

Accepted Answer

mutation that has no direct or indirect effect on the selective growth advantage of the cell in which it occurred

Question 7

What are the four most important properties of cancer cells? (can be caused by oncogene activation)

Accepted Answer

``` ~ self-sufficiency in growth signallung ~ insensitivity to signals suppressing growth ~ enabling replicative immortality ~ genome instability and mutation ~ ability to avoid apoptosis ```

Question 8

What is the common characteristic found in cancer susceptibility genes?

Accepted Answer

genes have roles as +ve or -ve regulators of cell proliferation

Question 9

Oncogenes

Accepted Answer

dominantly acting cancer-susceptibility genes ~ normally protons-oncogenes ~ arise from genetic change that increases in the protein's activity ~ mutations are genetically dominant

Question 10

Proto-oncogene

Accepted Answer

function in growth signalling pathways that promote cell proliferation or inhibit apoptosis

Question 11

Name the six functional classes of cellular oncogenes.

Accepted Answer

``` ~ growth factors/mitogens ~ growth factors/mitogen receptors ~ signal transduction component ~ transcription factors ~ cell cycle regulators/drivers ~ cell death inhibitors ```

Question 12

Mitogens

Accepted Answer

stimulate cell division by binding to a receptor in the cell membrane and activating signal transduction pathways that acts through Ras to stimulate

Question 13

growth factors/mitogen receptors oncogenic mutations e.g. EGFR

Accepted Answer

EGFR = epidermal growth factor receptor Very common in lots of cancers, mutations include: ~ amplification = more receptors ~ deletion = truncated reporter that fires w/o mitogen

Question 14

signal transduction component oncogenic mutations

Accepted Answer

mutated Ras looses its intrinsic GTPase activity = permanently active = constant downstream signally w/o activation

Question 15

transcription factors oncogenic mutations

Accepted Answer

Mutation in Myc protein: ~ amplification (lots of gene) ~ point mutation (stabilises Myc) ~ translocation (increased gene expression)

Cancer #3 Flashcards