Final Exam - Cancer

Question 1

Compare and Contrast benign and malignant cells

Answer 1

• Benign & malignant cells can both be cancerous
• Benign –> well differentiated, encapsulated, slow growing, follow normal cell cycle, don’t invade surrounding tissues

Malignant –>metastasize, invade surrounding tissues, proliferated cell growth, well differentiated to undifferentiated

Question 2

Tumors originating from the epithelium are called ________

Answer 2

carcinoma

Question 3

Define Etiology

Answer 3

the study of the causes of disease.

try to identify cacinogins like sun, alcohol, and cigarettes

develop advanced screening techniques

Question 4

Benefits to staging (3)

Answer 4

• means of comparison of tumors
• helps determine best treatment
• aids in predicting prognosis

Question 5

Describe in detail the most common staging system

Answer 5

The TNM system

T - (tumor) -gives size of tumor on scale of [1-4]. size is relative to structure

N - (lymph node involvement) - scale of [0-4]. 0 indicates no involvment, 4 indicates there is distant lympth node involvement from primary site

M - (metastatic) - looks for spead of the disease to other parts of the body. Can be 0, 1, of X. 1 means metastatic and X means not assessed

Question 6

Define epidemiology

Answer 6

• study of the occurance of a disease
• the “who, what, where”
• publishes statistical datat about cancer occurance in different ages, races, sexes, etc…

Question 7

How does prognosis affect a patient treatment plan?

Answer 7

• helps us to gauge how aggressive our treatment can be
• determine if it should be localized or systemic treatment
• curative or paliative

Question 8

What role does surgery play in teh overall treatment of cancer?

Answer 8

• helps to determine tumor stage to allows for planning
• can be used as a palliative option to reduce symptoms
• can be used to both diagnose and cure at the same time if the tumor can be removed en bloc

Question 9

Tumor grade

Answer 9

• provides information about tumor aggressiveness
• is based on the degree of differentiation
• can only be determined by microscopic evaluation

Question 10

Name 4 advantages to Radiation Therapy

Answer 10

1. preservation of function
2. better cosmetic results
3. minimally invasive
4. small amount of side effects/predictable

Question 11

True or False

Physicians from all disciplines develop treatment plans that best treat the cancer and preserve the quality of life for the patient

Answer 11

True

Question 12

Primary tumor of the bone is call _________________

Answer 12

osteosarcoma

Question 13

Primary tumor of the blood is called _________

Answer 13

Leukemia

Question 14

Primary tumor of the blood is called ____________

Answer 14

Lymphoma