Environmental Risk Factors

Question 1

What’s one big reason we know that environment is a big risk factor of cancer?

Answer 1

Individuals that move from one population to another population/country, adopt the cancer risks of the host population.

Question 2

What are some environmetnal risk factors?

Answer 2

Smoking, infections, diet, pollution, other.
Exogenous chemicals. Endogenous agents (hormones and immune system), physical agents (X rays, UV< asbestos), bioagents (bacteria, RNA and DNA viruses).

Question 3

Scrotal cancer was previously very rare, but people realised it might be environmentally caused when?

Answer 3

When they noticed lots of chimney sweeps getting it

Question 4

Why was smoking hard to actually see the connection with cancer?

Answer 4

Because although it increased risk by 30 times, it paralleled the industrial revolution and other changing environmental risk factors

Question 5

What new environmental risk factors increased the risk of angiosarcoma of the liver?

Answer 5

vinyl chloride

Question 6

DDT exposure leads to what two cancers?

Answer 6

Utero and breast cancer

Question 7

Alcohol is responsible for what percentage of cancer deaths?

Answer 7

3.6%

Question 8

How does Alcohol cause head, neck, breast, CRC, laryngeal, oesophageal and pancreatic cancer?

Answer 8

Acetaldehyde does damage, causes inflammation that leads to cancer?

Question 9

What’s a problem we have as technology of materials advances?

Answer 9

There’s no way we would realistically test every new material for whether it is carcinogenic

Question 10

What effect does Red meat have?

Answer 10

Generates carcinogenic N-nitroso compounds

Question 11

Preserved meats are preserved in what?

Answer 11

carcinogens

Question 12

If your microbiome is altered then E.coli strains can do what?

Answer 12

Produce the genotoxin called colibactin which damages DNA. This can create CRC driver mutations.

Question 13

What do plant toxins Aflatoxin and Aristocholic acid do when eaten (typically in Balkans)

Answer 13

Cause T>A transitions. Causes renal cancer.

Question 14

What effect does HRT have in terms of cancer?

Answer 14

The Estrogen drives clonal expansion of cells in the breasts leading to cancer

Question 15

Chronic inflammation from infections causing chronic lymphocyte proliferation can lead to what type of cancer?

Answer 15

MALTomas

Question 16

How can transplants lead to cancer?

Answer 16

Through immunosuppression

Question 17

What cancers are typical from HIV/AIDs?

Answer 17

Kaposi’s sarcoma, and Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Question 18

Why do HIV patients and transplant patients get different cancers?

Answer 18

Although both are being immuno-suppressed, in HIV only CD4 is suppressed, in transplant patients its the whole immune system being suppressed.

Question 19

What do Oncogenic microbes do?

Answer 19

EBV and HBV insert next to TERT…?

Question 20

Radiation causes which types of cancers?

Answer 20

All of them, they all increase linearly with dose

Question 21

Where have we learned information about radiation and cancer?

Answer 21

Those exposed medically, to the atomic bomb, and occupational exposure.

Question 22

What cancers do come more from X-irradiation?

Answer 22

Thyroid cancers

Question 23

What are the two types of late effects of radiation?

Answer 23

Deterministic - Severity increases with dose.
Stochastic - Some randomness.

Question 24

Smoking causes what percentage of all cancer deaths?

Answer 24

30%

Question 25

What cancers does smoking cause?

Answer 25

Lung, oesophageal, mouth, bladder too though.

Question 26

What are the carcinogens in smoking?

Answer 26

Many, but there are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons inducing p53 mutations, and N-nitroso compounds too

Question 27

What mutation type is common in smokers?

Answer 27

C>A