Day 16, Lecture 2: Cancer III: Chemotherapy Flashcards
1
Q
Incidence of Cancer
A
- 1.66 million new cases annually in the U.S.
- 0.59 million deaths annually in the U.S. each year
- 2nd leading cause of death
2
Q
Rank the what are the three highest types of cancers diagnosed each year (highest incidence)?
What are the 3 highest cancers that causes mortality each year?
A
- Incidence:
- Prostate/Breast
- Lung/Bronchus
- Colon and Rectum
- Mortality:
- Lung and Bronchus
- Prostate/Breast
- Colon and Rectum
3
Q
Why did the male incidence rate of cancer greatly increase in 1992
A
- Invention of PSA lead to greater number of diagnosis
4
Q
A
5
Q
Why might obesity lead to increase risk of cancer
A
6
Q
Etiology of Cancer
A
7
Q
What is Cancer?
A
8
Q
A
9
Q
Is cancer a genetic and epigenetic disease?
A
Yes
10
Q
Cancer Treatment
A
- Surgery
- Radiotherapy
- Chemotherapy
- often an adjuvant therapy (with/after primary therapy)
- Can be first line therapy
- if surgery/radiotherapy not safe or effective
- can be neoadjuvant therapy
- before surgery/radiotherapy to reduce tumor burden
- Can be mono or combination therapy
- Immunotherapy
- Gene therapy
- Virotherapy
11
Q
A
12
Q
A
13
Q
Log-Kill Hypothesis
A
- Drug kills a constant fraction of cells
- Multiple rounds of administration are required to eradicate all tumor cells
- Problem arises from dormant tumor cells and cancer stem cells
- these cells are insensitive to therapy
- It is easier to kill dividing cells, which is why there are many cell cycle-specific drugs
14
Q
Chemotherapy Resistance
A
- Contributes to >50% of failure of chemotherapy
- Types of resistance:
- Single agent
- Multidrug resistance (MDR)
- resistance often builds up to many drugs after treatment with only one drug
- Potential Mechanisms:
- Increased influx of drug out of cell
- decreased influx of drug into cell or nucleus
- increased detoxification mechanisms
- decreased activation of drug
- amplified or altered drug target
- increased ability to tolerate damage
15
Q
Combination Chemotherapy
A
- Multiple agents in specific sequence (or together) to overcome resistance and enhance antitumor effects
- Sometimes cycled ever 2-4 weeks
- due to side-effects of drugs
- the worst side-effects are gone by week 4
- Criteria for combination therapy
- should act by different mechanisms of action
- should have different mechanisms of resistance
16
Q
Systemic Toxicity of Chemotherapy
A
-
Direct Toxicities
-
Bone Marrow
- Myelosuppression
- Neutropenia
- thrombocytopenia
- anemia
- GI mucosa
- mucositis
- nausea
- vomiting
- diarrhea
- Oral mucosa
- Skin, including light sensitivity
- Hair follicles
- Alopecia
- Gonads
-
Bone Marrow
-
Other Toxicities
- Heart
- Liver
- Lung
- CNS
- Kidney
- Bladder
- Secondary Malignancies