Intro to cancer therapy

Question 1

What is adjuvant therapy?

Answer 1

Means to aid in achieving cure

Neo- adjuvant means before surgery

Question 2

What is the best conceptual advance in cancer therapy?

Answer 2

artful combination of local and systemic therapy

Question 3

What are the 5 curative systemic therapy via drugs?

Answer 3

1. acute lymphocytic leukemia
2. some pediatric sarcomas
3. germ cell tumors
4. Aggressive and intermediate lymphomas
5. Acute myeloid leukemia

Question 4

What are 3 ways which systemic therapies are classified?

Answer 4

1. chemo
2. signal transduction inhibitors
3. immune therapy

Question 5

What do most pharms act against?

Answer 5

Proteins

Question 6

What is ubiquination?

Answer 6

To selectively lyse proteins inside the cell

Question 7

What are some ways in which apoptosis is very important?

Answer 7

1. formation of free and independent digits

2. development of reproductive organs

Question 8

What is cancer a representation of?

Answer 8

Failure of cells to response to normal regulator signals

- most importantly the escape of apoptosis

Question 9

What is the role of most chemo drugs?

Answer 9

stress the cell to activate apoptosis

- they do not kill cells directly

Question 10

What are capases?

Answer 10

proteins that once activated cleave and shift a cell towards commitment of apoptosis

Question 11

What are 3 classic and common characteristics of cancer?

Answer 11

1. very high interstitial pressure
2. low oxygen tension
3. low pH
   - tumors have organ level complexity

Question 12

What are 2 regulators of cells in the cell cycle?

Answer 12

Oncogenes

Tumor suppressors

Question 13

What are 2 ways which cancer can present?

Answer 13

Growth regulation
DNA repair
- accumulated genetic damage

Question 14

What does in vitro testing mean?

Answer 14

Testing in cell culture

Question 15

What does in vivo testing mean?

Answer 15

non-human species studying

-pre-clinical testing

Question 16

What is the goal of phase 1 of human oncology trials?

Answer 16

Define the dose and schedule

• typically less than 40 pts

- aim to define Dose limiting toxicity

Question 17

What is pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics?

Answer 17

• How body affects drugs like distribution, metabolism and excretion
• how drug affects body like how drug interacts with living system

Question 18

What is phase 2 of human oncology trials?

Answer 18

Define an anti cancer effect in some defined group of patient

• hypothesis generating
• define the rate of benefit
• are strongly related to the details of who was selected to be in the study

Question 19

What is the goal of phase 3 of human oncological testing?

Answer 19

Formally compare some novel treatment with an existing standard

• hypothesis testing 300-1200 pts
• requires “lucky you test”

Question 20

What is a toxicity assessment?

Answer 20

toxicity accounted for in terms of adverse effects

1. No phys or clinical consequences
2. phys relevant
3. potentially associate with major morbidity
4. life threatening

Question 21

What is prognostic factors?

Answer 21

Most cancers have well described features that are strikingly related to prognosis like neuts or lymphs ratio

• low albumin
• high ferritin
• high platelets
• elevated CRP
• Increase sed rate
• Elevated beta-2- microglobulin
• Elevated IL-6
• age
• particular genetic lesions