Lecture 1 - Biology Of Cell Transformation - Introduction

Question 1

What is Cancer?

• ________ cell growth
• Many diseases: > _____ related
• Requires _______ or a cascade of these
• May involve de-________
• Disease of _______ –> one of the reasons why it really is not _______ - due to accumulation of _______
• _________ regulation may be involved
• Able to avoid the ________ system
• Can be invasive –> __________
• Can be either ________ or _________
• In the center of a tumour, tends to be ________
• As tumours grow, they tend to promote ________

Answer 1

Uncontrolled
200+
Mutations
Dedifferentiation
aging - (not) curable - mutations
Epigenetic
Immune
Metastasize
Benign, malignant
necrotic
Angiogenesis

Question 2

What is dedifferentiation?

Answer 2

Process by which a partially or terminally differentiated cell reverts to an earlier developmental stage.

Question 3

As tumours grow, what do they promote? Why?

Answer 3

Tend to promote angiogenesis, or the formation of blood vessels.
This is because they need more nutrients to handle the increase cell division.

Question 4

What are the different treatments we see for Cancer?

Answer 4

• Those that target ROS scavenging
• Radiation therapy
• Surgery
• Poisons
• Immunotherapy

Question 5

What are the issues with radiation therapy?

Poisons?

Answer 5

Both tend to be non-specific and can cause damage to normal tissues.
Hit cancer cells and normal cells.

Question 6

Surgery is used most prominently for what?

Answer 6

Solid tumours

Question 7

Give an example of a drug that acts as a poison towards cancer.

Answer 7

Taxol

Doxorubicin

Question 8

Give an example drug used for immunotherapy.
What does it target?
What is immunotherapy most geared towards?

Answer 8

Rituxan –> targets B-cells

Used for lymphomas mostly

Question 9

What are the two MAIN classes when considering ploidy?

Answer 9

1 - Chromosomal instability

2 - Microsatellite instability

Question 10

Describe cancers related to chromosomal instabilities.

Answer 10

Tend to be aneuploid
Cell cycle defects
Low mutation rate
DNA repair proficient

Question 11

Describe cancers related to microsatellite instability.

Answer 11

Typically diploid
High mutation rate
Repair deficient –> typically defects in DNA repair pathways
Defined by the fact that changes in microsatellite sizes are associated