Genetics and cancer

Question 1

what are charecteristics gained by cells on progeression to cancer ?

Answer 1

proliferation
evasion of immune response
acquire a vascular supply
avoid apoptosis
metastasis

Question 2

What genes are involved in cancer ?

Answer 2

oncogenes
tumour suppressors
DNA repair genes
Drug metabolism

Question 3

what do oncogenes do ?

Answer 3

switch on genes for cell divison

Question 4

what do tumour supperessors do ?

Answer 4

stop cell division

Question 5

what are drug metabolism ?

Answer 5

genes that metabolise carcinogens

Question 6

what are mechanisms of gene activation ?

Answer 6

duplication of the gene
activation of the gene promoter
change in amino acid sequence

Question 7

What does FISH stand for ?

Answer 7

Fluorescence in stiu hybridisation

Question 8

What does FISH do ?

Answer 8

can light up specific bit of chromosome if you know which bit to light up

Question 9

what causes a small proportion of familial breast cancer ?

Answer 9

mutations in the BRCA1 gene

Question 10

what are rare autosomal forms of breast cancer ?

Answer 10

young age of onset
many cancers
rare tumours

Question 11

what is multifactorial predisposition ?

Answer 11

everyone at some risk
anyone with family history at increased risk