Cancer: The Basics Flashcards
What are the big four cancer types in the US?
Digestive Organs, Respiratory, Breast, Reproductive Tract
Why are most prostate cancers not a big deal?
Slow growth and poor ability to metastasize.
What two heritable properties define cancer cells?
They reproduce in defiance of normal restraints on cell division
The invade and colonize territories normally reserved for other cells.
What is a benign tumor?
A tumor that is not metastasizing.
What are adenomas?
Benign tumors of glandular tissue
What are adenocarcinomas?
Malignant tumors of glandular epithelial tissue
Do cancers have a polyclonal or monoclonal origin?
Monoclonal
What is malignancy?
The ABILITY of a neoplasm to metastasize
Does not mean it’s doing so currently
What are the general properties of cancer cells being created?
Loss of normal regulation Avoid apoptosis Genetic instability Escape from home tissue Survive and proliferate in foreign sites
What is an oncogene?
Tumor promoter Gene
What leads to onocogene formation?
A single mutation event
What two general mutation types lead to cancer?
Loss of function (tumor suppressor gene)
Gain of fxn (oncogene)
How do proto-oncogenes become oncogenic?
Mutation in coding sequence
Gene amplification
Chromosome rearrangment
moved to nearbyregulatory dna sequence
fused to active geneTumor Suppressor genes (acting in recessive manner) result in ????
Increased or sustained proliferation or decreased DNA repair
Loss of function requires how many mutatoins?
two
