Epidemiologic and Environmental Aspects of Cancer Flashcards
What percent of malignant neoplasms are caused by environment?
80%
T or F, migrants and their descendants adopt the relative risk of the country that they move to. What does this imply?
T.can’t attribute everything to genetics. Matters where you came from and where you go.
Identify the three most common types of cancer (other than skin cancer) among men (incidence).
Prostate- 26%
Lung- 14%
Colon/Rectum- 14%
Identify the three most common types of cancer (other than skin cancer) among women (incidence)
Breast- 29%
Lung-13%
Colon/Rectum- 8%
Identify the three most common types of cancer (other than skin cancer) among men (death).
Lung-28%
Prostate-9%
Colon/Rectum-8%
Identify the three most common types of cancer (other than skin cancer) among women (death).
Lung-26%
Breast-15%
Colon/Rectum-9%
An environmental chemical must be activated by what molecule to be considered carcinogenic?
P450
What are the four groups of chemical carcinogens?
- Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (benzo(a)pyrene)
- Aromatic amines (anilines)
- Nitrosamines
- Aflatoxins
What are some examples of Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon carcinogens?
-benzo(a)pyrene-anything with a diol or epoxide group-at risk any time you burn stuff
What are some facts of Aromatic amine carcinogens?
- aniline
- requires N-hydroxylation and sulfation
- industrial and consumer products
What are some facts of nitrosamine carcinogens?
-carbonium intermediate-in preservatives in food (cheetohs)-2 amines in food react with nitrous acid in stomach
Where do aflatoxins come from?
- moldy grains, nuts, corn especially in tropics
- produced by aspergillus flavus
- microsomal epoxidation is required to be a carcinogen
If an epoxide is formed during a P450 reaction, _____
the product becomes cytotoxic and mutagenic.
Outline Miller’s theory of carcinogenesis
- CYP450 turns chemicals into active forms
- metabolites become strong electrophiles
- electrophilic species can chemically modify proteins, RNA, DNA
- The bases can be attacked and cause frameshifts and mispairings
P450 generates electrophiles which screw with RNA/DNA.
What is the Ames test?
A rapid and inexpensive test for mutagens. Tests ability to mutagenize Salmonella typhimurium.