Cancer Biology Flashcards
What proportion of cancers are avoidable?
50-80%
Why do stomach and cervical cancer have reduced incidence?
Better food storage and cervical cancer screening
What is and why is there an increased incidence of breast cancer each year he to child delay?
3% increase, thought to be due to the hormone in flux on giving birth is protective
What are 90% of cancer origins?
Epithelial I.e. Lung, bowel, skin
Large bowel cancer is late onset due to
Need of cumulative mutations (6-10) in one cell, or immune system failing or epigenetic changes when ageing. Also evidence that the nucleus changes shape as you age which alters gene expression
What cancers have genes that when have mutations or are just inherited lead to increased incidence?
Familial adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) 1 mutant allele of APC gene gives 100% risk of owed cancer in 30’s
BRAC1 & BRAC2 gives 60-80% lifetime risk, genes also have pleotropic effect and also cause ovarian and endometrial cancers
What key genes are mutated in colorectal cancer?
APC/ beta catenin
Kras and EGFR
p53, 18q LOH/ TGFbeta
What do you give women expressing human epithelial growth factor 2
Herceptin to starve the tumour. BUT only in HER2 experts sing breast cancers
What is an anti apoptosis factor that is secreted in the bottom of the crypt
Bcl-2
What are pro apoptosis factors secret at the top of the crypt?
Bax and TGFbeta
What effect does aspirin have on bowler cancer and why?
Aspirin is an anti-inflammatory so reduced risk of bowel cancer. Chronic inflammation is highly linked to cancer
What is retrodifferentiation?
Reversion to embryonic phenotype exhibited by tumour cells
What are the 6 hallmarks of cancer?
- Evade apoptosis 2. Self sufficiency for growth factors 3. Insensitivity to anti growth factors 4. Limitless potential to divide 5. Sustained angiogenesis 6. Tissue invasion and metastasis
Chemical carcinogens include:
Benzo(a)pyrene Asbestos Tar, wood, oil Radon Wood dust Aflatoxin B
What in the diet can cause cancer?
High fat = increase bile acid = increased bowel cancer
High fibre is protective
Low fibre can lead to cancer.
Proto oncogene (+examples)
A normal gene involved in normal growth control and differentiation, oftenr involved in control of the cell cycle. C-Myc and c-ras.
How does c-myc become an oncogene
By over expression of the normal protein
How does c-ras become an oncogene?
By a single base mutation
Oncogene
A gene whose product can act in a dominant fashion to help make a normal cell cancerous. Typically it is a mutant of a normal growth factor gene.
Compete carcinogen
Produce tumours on their own without addition of extra chemicals such as tumour promoters
Incomplete carcinogen
Sometimes called initiating agents, cannot produce tumours on their own, require subsequent exposure to treated cells or tumour promoting agents
Two stages in cancer developed and what are they exemplified by?
Tumour initiation and tumour promotion as shown by the mouse skin model.
What are two initiating agents?
B(a)P and DMBA
What is a promoting agent
TPA
What happens to the cells after addition of an initiating agent?
Mutations but no tumour
How do tumour promoting agents cause cancer
By irritation and inflammation, altering gene expression and inhibiting metabolic cooperation
Why are some people at a higher risk of cancer?
Genetic variation in activation and detoxification, the enzymes for these have different efficiency dependent on the individual.
C-h-ras has two hotspots what are they and what are the mutations that occur there to cause cancer and what causes the mutation at each hotspot?
Codon 12: normal to tumour is glycine to valine GGC: GTC
Codon 61: normal to tumour is glutamate to leucine CAA: CTA
Benzo(a)pyrene preferentially binds to guanine causing codon 12 mutations in the tumours. Constitutive signal for proliferation.
DMBA preferentially binds to adenosine causing codon 61 mutations (Change of function mutation)
Why is cancer incidence increasing?
Living longer but also lifestyle is getting worse, obesity etc.
How early in papilloma development does c-harvey-ras mutate?
the earliest stages
what does the specificity of the tumour mutation depend on?
the tumour initiating agent, not the promoter i.e. benzo (a) pyrene not TPA. The promoter makes no difference to the mutation.
Initiation agent benzo(a)pyrene can be replaced by:
a retrovirus - harvey murine sarcoma virus and scraping it into the skin
What chromosome is N-ras on and what s it mutated in?
chromosome 1, neurblastoma
chromosome cancer mutated in of H-ras
chromosome 11 and colon & breast cancers
chromosome and cancer mutation of K-ras
chromosome 12, colon and breast cancers
How any human cancers have viral involvement?
10-20%
what is a proto-oncogene?
a normal gene involved in normal growth control and differentiation that can be converted into a cancer promoting oncogene by mutation.
Over-expression of a proto-onocogene can be due to
mutated promoter, chromosome translocation and gene amplification
what is the product of the ras proto-oncogene/
p21
The normal ras protein has…
the mutated ras protein has..
- GTPase activity
2. reduced GTPase activity
how does ras oncogene function?
as a G protein involved in signal transduction at the cell membrane
mutations in ras lead to it…
being constitutively switched on, to continuously signal for growth
Proto-oncogene mutations are usually…
gain of function, dominant acting
Define tumour viruses
viruses that are capabe of either alone or in cooperation with other agents of converting normal cells to tumour cells or pushing abnormal cells further along the pathway to cancer. Most viruses are non-oncogenic.
acute transforming viruses include:
rous sarcoma virus
avian erythroblastosis virus
simian sarcoma virus
harvey ras virus
what is the oncoprotein in rous sarcoma virus?
p60(SRC)
What viral proteins are encoded by RSV?
gag, pol, env and p60(SRC)
p60(SRC) has what dominant acting activity?
protein kinase activity, phosphorolating tyrosine
What are all the factors of acute transforming viruses?
- contain oncogenes
- insert randomly into the host genome
- cause tumours in animals in 2-6 weeks
- transform cells in culture
- oncogenes are dominant
What is an example of a slow transforming virus?
Avian Leukosis virus
How do slow transforming viruses integrate into the host DNA?
specifically using the viral LTR promoter which leads to over-expression of the cellular proto-oncogene
Slow transforming viruses: (5)
- do not have an oncogene
- Very low/non-detectable frequency of transformation of cells in culture
- After infection takes 3-13 months for tumours to appear
- have specific integration sites in cellular DNA leading to viral promoter sequences (LTR) causing overexpression.
- “slowness” due to randomness of integration and the time it takes to integrate next to specific proto-oncogene (c-myc)
Is the direct effect of a slow transforming virus encoded in its DNA?
No, effect is from insertion, UNLIKE acute transforming viruses.
What does v-sis encode?
A viral version of PDGF
What does v-erbB encode?
A truncated EGF recptor
Do cancer viruses mutate the host PO’s/TSG’s?
No, they normally transform by introducing abnormal virus genes coding for abnormal proteins (not STV’s)
What phase of the cell cycle do PGDF and EGF push the cell into?
S phase
How does TGFbeta affect the cell cycle?
Causes cell cycle arrest in G1