F lec 21 Flashcards
a group of over-proliferating cells
tumour
tumours that are not able to invade neighbouring tissues and therefore are not cancerous
benign tumours
a tumour that can invade nearby tissues
malignant tumour (cancer)
cancer that has spread to secondary sites - via the travel of cancer cells through lymph or blood systems
metastatic tumour
cancer that arise from epithelial cells - most common and most dangerous cancer in humans
carcinomas
cancers that arise from connective tissue or muscle
sarcomas
cancers that arise from white blood cells
leukemias and lymphomas
2 competing theories on the origins/ causes of cancer:
chemical mutagens, viruses
____________________ are mutagens that cause cancer by mutating our genes
carcinogens
process by which we can change normal cells to cancer cells in vitro using mutagens - proved these mutagens could cause cancer
in vitro transformation
normal cells grown in culture will form a ________________
monolayer
normal cells grown in culture that lose contact with the place surface will undergo apoptosis - this is known as ________________ _______________
anchorage dependence
normal cells grown in culture that lose contact with the place surface will undergo ______________ - this is known as anchorage dependence
apoptosis
normal cells grown in culture will divide about _____(#) times before replication induced senescence occurs
30
normal cells grown in culture can enter senescence before their “30” time limit of cell division if they reach a _________________ _______________ due to contact inhibition
uniform monolayer
normal cells grown in culture can enter senescence before their “30” time limit of cell division if they reach a uniform monolayer due to ______________ ________________
contact inhibition
normal cells grown in culture require added ____________________ containing growth and survival factors to grow
serum
4 characteristics of cancer cells in culture compared to normal cells in culture:
loss of contact inhibition, loss of anchorage dependence, reduced requirement for added serum, ability to divide indefinitely (immortality)
the first characterized virus that causes tumours - led to a model that cancer is caused by infectious agents
RSV (rous sarcoma virus)
RSV is a _________________ that has an RNA genome and a reverse transcriptase enzyme to make a DNA copy of its RNA - the DNA copy is then integrated into the host cell genome
retrovirus
first animal virus to have its genome sequenced
SV40 (integrated DNA into host genome even though it wasnt a retrovirus)
the specific gene within RSV found to be responsible for its cancer causing abilities
src
retrovirus that causes cancer with slow onset
MLV
retrovirus that causes cancer quickly
RSV
what does RSV have that MLV doesnt?
src gene
what caused doubts about viral origins of cancer in humans: (2 things)
could not find viruses in most human tumours, most human cancers cannot be transmitted from person to person
Varmus and Bishop found that all chickens contain a ________ ___________ whether they have been infected with RSV or not
src gene
difference between endogenous src gene in chickens and the src gene carried by the virus
viral src gene lost most of its introns
even animals that dont get infected by RSV have this ________ __________ that was discovered to be the gene causing cancer in viruses
src gene
based on the observation that even chickens and other animals that have not or cannot be infected by RSV to cause cancer, researchers came up with the theory that it is not the presence of the gene that causes cancer, but rather cancer is caused by the __________________ of specific genes
overexpression (or in some cases the underexpression)
cancer is caused by the ____________________ of specific genes that originated from our own genome (proto-oncogenes), that are carried in viruses (viral oncogenes)
overexpression
cancer is caused by the overexpression of specific genes that originated from our own genome (________________), that are carried in viruses (viral oncogenes)
proto-oncogenes
advantage of incorporating the src gene into the viral genome for the virus and expressing that gene at high levels
causes the infected cell to divide more (which is good for the virus cuz then it can infect more cells)