Cancer

Question 1

Cancer definition

Answer 1

Any disorder of cell growth that results in invasion and destruction

Question 2

Two routes through which cancer spreads

Answer 2

Bloodstream

Lymphatic systems

Question 3

Benign vs malignant tumors

Answer 3

Benign aren’t capable of indefinite growth and aren’t invasive, but malignant are
Malignant are considered to be cancerous

Question 4

Oncogenes

Answer 4

Altered forms of normal genes required for cell proliferation and/or differentiation

Question 5

Tumor specific antigens

Answer 5

Unique to tumor cell
Altered or mutated cellular proteins
Can also be oncogenic viral proteins

Question 6

Tumor-associated antigens

Answer 6

Over-expression of normal proteins

Can also be proteins expressed only on fetal cells

Question 7

Immune escape mechanism: low immunogenicity

Answer 7

No peptide: MHC ligand
No adhesion molecules
No co-stimulatory molecules

Question 8

Immune escape mechanism: antigenic modulation

Answer 8

Positive selection of surface antigen-loss cell variants

Question 9

Immune escape mechanism: tumor-induced immune suppression

Answer 9

Factors such as TGF-beta secreted by tumor cells inhibit T cells directly

Question 10

Regulatory cells upregulated by tumors

Answer 10

T regulatory cells
Myeloid derived suppressor cells
These cells suppress immune response

Question 11

CD83

Answer 11

Soluble suppressive molecule

Suppresses T cell proliferation

Question 12

CD200

Answer 12

Soluble suppressive molecule
Suppresses T cell proliferation
Induces myeloid derived suppressor cells

Question 13

Exosomes

Answer 13

Carry suppressive proteins from cell to cell

Question 14

Two ways immunotherapy uses patient’s own immune system to treat cancer

Answer 14

1. Trains immune system to recognize and fight cancerous cells
2. Uses antibodies to destroy tumor cells

Question 15

Passive immunotherapy: 3 methods

Answer 15

Tumor-specific monocolonal antibodies
Cytokines
Adoptive cell transfer

Question 16

Active immunotherapy: 5 methods

Answer 16

Peptide vaccines
Dendritic cell vaccines
Allogenic whole cell vaccines
Checkpoint inhibitors
Oncolytic viruses

Question 17

Tumor lysate vaccine

Answer 17

Lysing tumors, creating immune-stimulating vaccines from their antigens

Question 18

Checkpoint inhibitor antibody therapy

Answer 18

CTLA-4 and PD-1: antibodies block these checkpoint inhibitors so that they can no longer shut down T cell proliferation