Endocrinology & Cancer Flashcards
what is the most common tumour type and location for pancreatic cancer?
Adenocarcinoma and head of pancreas
What are some risk factors for pancreatic cancer?
Increasing age, diabetics, smoking, chronic pancreatitis, HNPCC (men), MEN (multiple endocrine neoplasia) BRCA 2 gene, KRAS
What is Courvoisiers Law?
Palpable gallbladder in painless obstructive jaundice is unlikely to be caused by gallstones
What are some symtpoms to look out for in pancreatic cancer?
Painless jaundice
Pruritis
Pale stools
Dark urine
What other typical symtpoms/atypical symtpoms are seen
Epigastric pain
Back pain
What is the investigation of choice for pancreatic cancer?
Ultrasound
High resolution CT
DOUBLE-DUCT SIGN (bile duct and pancreatic duct dilation)
What is the management for pancreatic cancer?
- Whippels procedure but can causing dumping syndrome and peptic ulcers
- Adjuvant chemo following surgery
- PalliativeStenting with ERCP
5 Bs for metastatic tumour?
Bidney (kidney)
Bungs (lungs)
Breast
Bostate (prostate)
Byroid (thyroid)
What primary malignant tumours can cause pathological fractures?
- Osteosarcoma
- Chondrosarcoma
- Ewings tumour - long bone tumours
What is neoplasticism spinal cord compression? Causes, symptoms and lesion location relevance, what happens with tendon reflexes?, investigations, management
5 Bs, oncoogical emergency
Back pain, limb weakness, sensory changes - sensation loss or numbness
Increased tendon reflexes below lesion, absent above lesion
MRI urgent
High dose dexamethasone, ontological referral
What is multiple myeloma
Haematological disease due to the proliferation of PLASMA CELLS, which stem from b cells
What are the symptoms of myeloma?
CRABBI
C: hyperCalcaemia
R: renal deposition of light chains (bence jones, IgM/A antibodies)
A: anaemia (less space for erythropoiesis to occur)
B: bleeding due to thrombocytopenia
B: Bone pain (osteolytic lesions)
I: increased risk of infection due to less room for antibodies to fight against infection
What investigations are done for myeloma?
- FBC - anaemia
- U% E - renal function
- Bone profile - hypercalcaemia
- Peripheral blood smear - rouleaux formation (stacking coins RBC)
- Protein electrophoresis
MRI full body
Aspiration of bone marrow too
What is needed for diagnosis of myeloma?
1 major and 1 minor OR 3 minor symptoms
Major:
- >30% plasma cells on aspiration
- significantly elevated levels of IgM protein in blood/urine
- plasmacytoma seen
Minor:
- 10-30% of plasma cells on aspiration
- elevated but not majorly IgM protein in blood or urine
- osteolytic lesions
- low levels of other antibodies
Myeloma management?
Usually terminal, symptoms management control
Combination induction therapy can be used
Autologous stem cell transplant (remove and reintroduce own stem cells post chemo)
What cancer is cannon. Ball metastases seen in?
Renal cell cancer
What is cannonball metastases?
Multiple well defined rounded mets in the lungs
blatsic, lytic or mixed - what is most prone to spontaneous fracture?
Lytic
What region is most common and severe for spontaneous fracture?
Peritrochanteric
What is the scoring system to gauge spontaneous fracture risk?
Mirel scoring system
1- upper
2 - lower
3 - trochanteric
What is Back pain worse on lying down or coughing a risk of?
neoplasticism spinal cord compression
What are reed-sternberg cells and where are they seen in?
Often bilobed nucleated b-cells seen in Hodgkin lymphoma
What are the symptoms typically seen in Hodgkin lymphoma?
Proliferation of lymphocytes
Asymmetrical, not tender, painless lymph node in the cervical, supraclavicular, axillary or inguinal area.
Alcohol induced lymph node pain is a key symptom of Hodgkin lymphoma
B symptoms
- fever
- weight loss
- pruritis
- night sweats
What risk factors contribute towards Hodgkin lymphoma?
HV
EBV