L21 - Introduction to diagnosis and treatment

Question 1

What is the advantage of staging cancer patients?

Answer 1

Can be used prognostically to determine whether it is operable or what the outcome for the patient is.

Question 2

What do TNM stand for in the TNM tumour grading?

Answer 2

T-Tumour size
N- nodes, given a number depending on number of nodes affected and their location
M-Metastasis

Question 3

Why is chemotherapy given and what are the main types?

Answer 3

It is given to improve the outcome of definitive local therapy.
Adjuvant (post operant, most common) - to reduce risk of recurrence
Neo-Adjuvant (before surgery) - makes surgery easier by shrinking the tumour
Palliative - to improve the QOL in the advanced disease setting.

Question 4

What are the dukes stages of colon cancer?

Answer 4

Stage 1 - Invasion into the submucosa
Stage 2 - Invasion into the muscularis layer
Stage 3 - Invasion through the musclaris layer into the serosa
Stage 4 - Invasion into the peritoneal cavity

Question 5

What is stratified medicine?

Answer 5

It is personalised medicine. People are subdivided into categories depending on their risk of developing certain diseases.
Aims to get the right treatment to the right patient at the right time.

Question 6

How is gefitinib an example of stratified medicine?

Answer 6

It is targets the EGFR which is only appropriate treatment for a specific group of patients who have a mutation in the EGFR. Blocks teh EGFR anti-apoptotic pathway. Unfortunately resistance tends to develop in 10 months.