Cancer

Question 1

Define tumour, Neoplasm, Benign, malignant and cancer

Answer 1

tumours describe any kind of mass forming lesion (like inflamation, polyps)
Neoplasm is for tissues that have autonomous growth and have escaped normal constraits of cell proliferation
Neoplasms can be benign (remain localised) or Malignant (invade locally or distantly)
Cancers is the term for malignant neoplasms
Malign tumours dont always kill (basal skin carcinomas), and benign can kill (mostly due to location-like brain tumours)

Question 2

Define Hamatromas, Heterotropia, and teratomas and explain neoplasm naming schemes

Answer 2

Hamtromas are localised benign neoplasm that are abnormal by their architecture but not their cell type
Heterotropia are for cells that are abnormal because of their cell type (eg: pancreatic cells in stomach)
Teratomas are tumours derived from all 3 germ layers-can have cells from any 3, and can contain mature cell and/or tissues.
Neoplasms are names from their cell of origin (usually greek) + a suffix saying if they are benign (oma) or malignant (sarcoma) eg: Chondroma (cartilage benign neoplasm)
Some malignant tumours keep the -oma, like lymphoma, Melanoma, Hepatoma and teratoma

Question 3

What are the 4 difference between malignant and benign tumours?

Answer 3

Invasion, Metastasis, Differentiation and growth pattern
Invasion: This means direct extenstion into adjacent tissue and other structures (blood)
Metastasis: Spread of cells via blood vessels or other to other parts of the body (all malignant tumors have the ability to metastase, but can be caught before
Differentiation: This means how much does the cancer cell ressemble its original self-in general, cancer cells tend to have larger nuclei (larger nuclei/cytoplasm ratio), have more mitoses, abnormal mitoses and marked nucelar variations
Growth pattern: How much the architecture of the tumor ressemble the one it was derived from-usually much less defined

Question 4

What are the 5 main ways that tumours spread>

Answer 4

Direct extension, haematogenous, Lymphatic. Transcelocomic and perineural
Direct extension-associated with stromal response to tumour, including fibroblastic proliferation, vasculat proliferation and immune response
Haematogenous-via blood vessels-usually venules and capilaries because they have thinner walls-usually first place sarcomas spread
Lymphatic-via lymph to lymph nodes-pattern fo spread indicates where the tumour is coming from-most epithelial cancers start in lymph
Transcoelocomic-Via seeding of body cavitoes-common in pleural cavities, or peritoneal cavites
Perineural-Via nerves, underappreciated route of cancer-grow up the place nerves would be

Question 5

How do we assess tumour spread? What is TNM? Describe stage vs Grade

Answer 5

Tumour spread, or stage, is measured by TNM-T=tumour size of extent of local extension, N=number of lymph nodes involved, M=presence of distant metastases
Grade on the other hand is how differentiated the cancer cell are
for prognosis-stage is much more important than grade