Cancer

Question 1

How many types of cancer are there?

Answer 1

Cancer is an umbrella term for a group of over 200 diseases characterised by uncontrolled cell growth

Question 2

What causes cells to mutate?

Answer 2

•Internal factors 
- genetics 
- spontaneous damage 
•External factors 
- lifestyle 
- sun/UV/radiation 
- pollution 
- infections 
- hormones 
- occupation

Question 3

What is metastasis?

Answer 3

• Metastasis is the term for cancer that has spread from the primary site
• Spread occurs through blood or lymph
• Types of cancer have a common pattern of spread

Question 4

What are primary sites of cancer and the secondary site that corresponds?

Answer 4

Primary Secondary

Breast           Liver, lungs, 
                      Bones, brain
Prostate        Bones
Colorectal     Liver
Lung.             Bones
Melanoma     Lungs

Question 5

What are the four main classifications of cancer?

Answer 5

1) carcinomas - 85%
- cancers in epithelial cells
2) sarcomas - 1%
- cancers in bone, muscle, fatty or connective tissue
3) non-solid tumours - 6.5%
- leukaemia, lymphomas
4) brain and CNS tumours - 3%
- Glial tumours, acoustic neuroma, meningioma etc

Question 6

What are the two ways of classification?

Answer 6

1) classification by site of origin

2) classification by tissue types

Question 7

Common treatments for cancer

Answer 7

• surgery
• radiotherapy
• chemotherapy
• hormonal therapy
• targeted biological therapy
• gene/stem cell therapy

Question 8

How long does treatment take?

Answer 8

• surgery - recovery 12 weeks
• surgery and radiotherapy - 12-18weeks
• surgery and chemotherapy - 6months
• chemotherapy - 18weeks
• hormonal or targeted therapy - 2-10 years