Cancer Flashcards
What is bladder cancer?
Malignancy of bladder cells
What is the aetiology of bladder cancer
- Unknown
- Common genetic abnormalities are chromosome 9 deletions in superficial tumours and p53 mutations and 14q and 17q deletions in more invasive tumours
What are the risk factors of bladder cancer?
- Smoking
- Exposure to carcinogens in dye, rubber and leather industries
- Cyclophosphamide treatment
- Pelvic irradiation (e.g. for cervical carcinoma
- Chronic UTI
- Schistosomiasis
What is the epidemiology of bladder cancer?
- 2nd most common cancer of genitourinary system
- Males 2-3x more commonly affected as woken
- 50-70 yrs peak incidence
What are the presenting symptoms of bladder cancer?
- Painless macroscopic haematuria
- Urinary frequency, urgency, nocturia (irritative)
- Recurrent UTIs
- Pain due to clot retention
- Ureteral obstruction
- Extension to pelvis
What are the signs of bladder cancer on examination?
- Often no signs
- Under anaesthetic, bimanual examination is part of disease staging
What are the investigations for bladder cancer?
- Cytoscopy: allows visualisation of tumour, biopsy or removal
- USS, IVU: To assess upper and lower urinary tract, as tumours can be multifocal
- CR or MRI: For staging
- Urine cytology
What is breast cancer?
Malignancy of breast tissue
What is the aetiology of breast cancer?
Combination of genetic and environmental factors. BRCA-1 and BCRA-2
- Risk factors: Age, prolonged exposure to female sex hormones (particularly oestrogen), nulliparity, early menarche, late menopause and obesity. Fhx
What is the epidemiology of breast cancer?
- Common
- 1:9 in UK
- 4-70= peak incidence
- Rare in men
What are the presenting symptoms of breast cancer?
- Breast lump (usually painless) or changes in breast shape
- Nipple discharge or axillary lump
- Symptoms of malignancy: Weight loss, bone pain, paraneoplastic syndromes
What are the signs of breast cancer on examination?
- Breast lump (usually hard, irregular, may be fixed)
- Peau d’orange appearance of skin, skin tethering, fixed to chest wall
- Skin ulceration, nipple inversion
- Examine axillary nodes for lymphatic spread
- Paget’s disease of the nipple: Eczematous, ulcerated, discharging nipple. This is ductal carcinoma in situ infiltrating the nipple
What are the investigations for breast cancer?
- Triple assessment: Standardised approach to investigating breast lump. Consists of clinical examination, imaging (mammography or ultrasound) and tissue diagnosis (cytology or biopsy)
- Sentinal lymph node biopsy
- Staging: CXR, liver ultrasound. Consider isotope bone scan
- Bloods, FBC, U&E’s Ca, bone profile, LFT, ESR
What is a CNS tumour?
Primary tumour arising from brain tissues
- Tumours arising from meninges/CNS have better prognosis than intra-axial tumours
What is a meningioma?
Benign
What is an acoustic neuroma?
Benign
- Slow, growing, cerebellopontine angle tumour from vestibular part of CN8
What is a fibrilliary astrocytoma?
Most common form in cerebrum
What is pilocytic astrocytoma?
In brainstem and cerebellum, cystic
What is glioblastoma multiforme?
High grade invasive tumours
Poor prognosis
What is haemangioblastoma?
Vascular tumour in cerebellum
What is medulloblastoma?
Invasive malignant midline cerebellar tumour in children (vermis)
What is ependyoma?
In 4th ventricles, spinal cord, benign
What is lymphoma?
In immunosuppressed, high malignant
What is craniopharyngioma?
Benign, extra-axial, epithelial tumours of CNS
- Seen in both children and adults
- Most commonly arise within the sellar/suprasellar space
What is a pituitary adenoma?
Space occupying/endocrine effects. Benign
- Prolactinoma: secrete prolactin
- Somatotroph adenoma: secrete GH
- Corticotroph adenoma: secrete ACTH
- Gonadotroph adenoma: Secrete FSH, LH, alpha and beta subunits
- Null cell adenoma: secrete no hormones
- Thyrotroph adenoma: secrete TSH
What is the epidemiology of CNS tumours?
- Meningioma most common, esp in women
- Peak in children and elderly
What is the aetiology of CNS tumours?
- Unknown causes in adults
- Children: embryological errors in development
What are the risk factors for CNS tumours?
- Meningioma: FH brain tumour, NF2, breast cancer, radiation
- Acoustic neuroma: NF2
- Medulloblastoma: age, male, familial syndromes (ataxia-telangectasia, Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome, Gorlin’s syndrome)
- Astrocytic: industrial countries, white males, NF1, tuberous sclerosis, Li-Farumeni
- Lymphoma: HIV
- Pituitary adenomas: MEN1, familial isolated pituitary adenomas
What are the presenting symptoms of a meningioma?
- Mostly benign (can be atypical/malignant)
- Occurs at cranial and spinal sites
- Mass effects: Headaches, altered speech, personality seizures)
- Broca’s aphasia
What are the presenting symptoms of an acoustic neuroma?
- Cerebellopontine angle, unilateral sensorineural deafness, facial weakness, unilateral ataxia- walks into things, dizziness, hemifacial sensory impairment
- Tinnitus, difficulty localising sounds, decreased tears, headache, metallic taste, diplopia on lateral gaze, nystagmus
What are the presenting symptoms of medulloblastoma?
- Morning headaches
- Nausea
- Vomiting relieves headaches
- Irritability
What are the presenting symptoms of astrocytoma?
- Gerstmann’s syndrome: dominant parital love
- Neglect
- Hypothalamic syndrome
- Cognitive decline
- Emotional lability
- Visual change
- Motor weakness
- Speech deficit
What are the presenting symptoms of a craniopharyngioma?
- Diplopia, vision loss, headache, short stature
- Children: Acute visual loss. Other age groups: gradual vision loss
- Macrocephaly in infants
- Growth failure
- Amenorrhoea, erectile dysfunction, galactorrhoea
- Headache
- Raised ICP
- Optic atrophia
- Polyuria
What are the signs on examination of an acoustic neuroma?
- Loss of balance
- Swallowing difficulties
- Slow blink
- Gait
- Papilloedema
- Raised ICP
What are the signs on examination of medulloblastoma?
- Diplopia-6th nerve palsy
- Ophthalmoplegia- difficulty in lateral gaze
- Ataxia
- Bulging anteria fontanella
- Papilloedema
- Nystagmus
- Head tilt
- Ataxia
- Dysmetria
What are the signs of pituitary adenoma on examination?
- Decreased acuity
- Bitemporal hemianopia
- Pituitary apoplexy
- Diplopia
What are the investigations for CNS tumours?
- CT head
- MRI brain: high sensitivity
- CXR or CT: Determine whether lesion is secondary or primary
- Blood: CRP, ESR, consider HIV screen, toxoplasma serology
- Brain biopsy: Type and grading
- Lumbar puncture: contraindicated if there is evidence of raised intracranial pressure, may cause coning (herniation)
What is cholangiocarcinoma?
Primary adenocarcinoma of the biliary tree
What is the aetiology of cholangiocarcinoma?
Largely unknown
- Known associated with ulcerative colitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis, choledochal cysts, Caroli’s disease and parasitic infections of biliary tract
What is the epidemiology of cholangiocarcinoma?
- Rare
- Slightly more common in males
- More common in developing world due to parasitic infections
What are the presenting symptoms of cholangiocarcinoma?
- Obstructive jaundice (yellow skin and sclera, pale stools, dark urine, pruritis)
- Abdominal fullness or pain
- Symptoms of malignancy: weight loss, malaise
What are the signs of cholangiocarcinoma on examination?
- Jaundice
- Palpable gallbladder
- Epigastric or right upper quadrant mass
- May be hepatomegaly
What are the investigations for cholangiocarcinoma?
- Bloods: FBC, U&Es, LFT (bilirubin, alkphos), clotting, tumour markers (CA19-9 raised and cholangiocarcinoma and pancreatic carcinoma)
- Endoscopy
- Ultrasound
- CT, MRI or MRCP, bone scan: stage and visualise spread
- Arteriogram
What is Courvoisier’s law?
In the presence of jaundice, an enlarged gallbladder is unlikely to be due to gallstones i.e. carcinoma of the pancreas or lower biliary tree more likely
What is colorectal cancer?
Malignant adenocarcinoma of the large bowel
What is the aetiology of colorectal cancer?
- Environmental and genetic factors
- Sequence of epithelial dysplasia -> adenoma -> carcinoma due to genetic changes in oncogenes (e.g. APC, K-ras) and tumour suppressor genes (e.g. p52, DCC)
What are the risk factors for colorectal cancer?
- Western diet (high intake of red meat, alcohol, fat, sugar and reduced vegetable and fibre intake)
- Presence of colorectal polyps
- Previous colorectal cancer
- Family history
- IBD (particularly longstanding UC)
What is the epidemiology of colorectal cancer?
- 60-65 avg age at dx
- Rectal carcinomas more common in males
- Colon carcinomas more common in females
What are the presenting symptoms of colorectal cancer in the left-sided colon and rectum?
- Change in bowel habit
- Rectal bleeding or blood/mucous mixed in with the stools
- Rectal masses may also present as tenesmus (sensation of incomplete emptying after defecation)
What are the presenting symptoms of colorectal cancer in the right-sided colon?
- Later presentation
- Symptoms of anaemia, weight loss and non-specific malaise
- 20% present as emergency- pain, distension due to large bowel obstruction, peritonitis due to perforation
What are the signs of colorectal cancer on examination?
- Anaemia may be only sign: particularly in right sided lesion
- Abdominal mass
- Hepatomegaly
- Shifting dullness of ascites
- Low lying rectal tumours may be palpable on rectal examination
What are the investigations for colorectal cancer?
- Blood: FBC (for anaemia), LFT, tumour markers (CEA to monitor treatment response or disease recurrence)
- Stool: occult or frank blood
- Endoscopy: Sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy.
- Barium contrast studies: ‘Apple core’ stricture on barium enema
- Contrast CT scan: staging
What is gastric cancer?
Gastric malignancy, most commonly adenocarcinoma, more rarely lympphoma, leiomosarcoma or stromal tumours (GIST)