Cancer and stem cells

Question 1

What is apoptosis?

Answer 1

• death of useless cells
• usually happens when a cell replicates 50-60 times
• also happens in damaged cells

Question 2

What is cancer?

Answer 2

• uncontrolled growth and division of cells
• cells form a mass called a tumour

Question 3

What’s a tumour?

Answer 3

• some cells ignore the signal to stop growing/dividing because of a mutation

Question 4

What causes cell mutations?

Answer 4

• inherited (genetics)
• random
• environment (UV and radiation)
• chemicals (cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, etc)
• some viruses (HPV)

Question 5

What are the two categories of tumours?

Answer 5

• Benign (non cancerous)
• malignant (cancerous)

Question 6

Benign tumours are..

Answer 6

• relatively harmless (depends on location)
• mitosis occurs at moderate rate
• don’t invade other cells or spread (localized)

Question 7

Malignant tumours are..

Answer 7

• dangerous
• rapid cell division
• can spread to other parts of the body

Question 8

What is the lymphatic system?

Answer 8

• helps the immune system
• but cancer can spread this way (through lymph nodes)

Question 9

What are the treatments for cancer?

Answer 9

• radiation
• surgery
• chemotherapy

Question 10

Totipotent stem cells are..

Answer 10

• have ability to become any type of cell in body
• toti = total
• potent = potential

Question 11

Pluripotent stem cells are..

Answer 11

• can become almost any type of cell (e.g., early embryo cells)

Question 12

Multipotent cells are..

Answer 12

• can only become a few types of cells (e.g., blood stem cells)

Question 13

Embryonic stem (ES) cells are..

Answer 13

• found in early embryos (1-2 weeks)
• pluripotent
• used to treat illnesses and conditions

Question 14

Adult stem cells are..

Answer 14

• specialized cells (tissue-specific)
• can restore bone marrow in patients that have received chemo