Gastrointestinal Cancer Flashcards
What are the hallmarks of cancer?
- evasion of apoptosis
- self-sufficiency in growth signals
- insensitivity to anti-growth signals
- tissue evasion and metastasis
- limitless replicative potentila
- sustained angiogenesis
What are the two types of oesophageal caner?
- SCC (squamous cell cancer)
- ADC (adenocarcinoma)
What are the risks factors of oesophageal adenocarcinoma?
- gender (male)
- age (old)
- LOS relaxing drugs
- obesity
- H-pylori (less likely to have it-less juices)
- fruit and veg (protective)
- anti-oxidants (protective)
What does the H.pylori do?
stops the stomach from making acid and causes inflammation
How do you get hereditary diffuse-type gastric carcinoma?
due to genetic mutations in E-cadherin (found in adherins junctions)
Why is it bad if a tumour is E-cadherin negative?
tumour cells are more motile so can metastasise more easily
What other factors can cause E-cadherin repression?
- epigenetic events
- promoter hypermethylation
- EMT regulators
What does EMT stand for?
epithelial mesenchymal transcriptional factors
What is colorectal cancer linked to?
Western lifestyle
How can you prevent colon cancer?
By a change in lifestyle (40% of people could survive if they did this)
What are the risk factors for colon cancer?
- meat (red and processed)
- obesity
- low levels of physical activity
- alcohol
What can reduce the risk of colon cancer?
- regular use of aspirin
- high levels of exercise
- fibrous diet
- eating fish
What are the types of colorectal cancer?
- sporadic
- familial (FAP and HNPCC)
What does FAP stand for?
familial adenomatous polyposis coli
How do you treat FAP?
prophylactic surgery
