Lecture 21 Flashcards
describe history of cancer
Oldest described cancer ~3000 BC in ancient Egyptian textbook on trauma surgery and indicates there is no treatment
Cancers found in fossilized bone tumors and
mummified humans.
what did hippocrates think of cancer
460-370BC
used term carcinos and carcinoma to describe it
cancer projections look like a crab - open up patients and see tumors with vasculature and looks like crab - projections spreading out
what did galen think of cancer
130-200AD
used word oncos - greek for swelling to describe it
(oncology)
describe humoral theory
Hippocrates believed that excessive black bile (one of the 4 humors) caused cancer. Believed through the Middle Ages (~1300 years).
black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm
describe infectious disease theory
some believed in 17th and 18th centuries that cancer was infectious
would isolate patients with cancer from others
describe modern day theory
viruses, chemical carcinogens, and radiation
tabacco, smoking, UV light, exposure
describe cancer and tumorigenesis
dna damaging event
normal cells stop dividing but cancer cells do not stop (immortalized)
have additional traits that allow them to grow and spread
name the hallmarks of cancer
sustaining proliferative signalling
evading growth suppressors
enabling replicative immortality
activating invasion and metastasis
genome instability and mutation
resisting cell death
inducing angiogenesis
deregulating cellular genetics
tumor promoting inflammation
avoid immune destruction
describe sustaining poliferative signaling
does not respond way normal cells do to extracellular signaling
like growth factors - if high amounts = divide more, if low = dormant
cancer cells have constituitive signalling = permanently on signalling that keeps them going
describe enabling replicative immortality
dont stop dividing
do it forever
describe activating invasion and metastasis
ability to activate metastasis
if primary tumor removed immediately = good
dying is from primary tumor moving from original spot and sets up somewhere else - via lymphatic system = kills patients
becomes dangerous and hard to treat
describe genome instability and mutation
divide indefinetly
what is cellular transformation
every transformed cell is immortalized but not every immortalized cell is transformed - cell must be transformed in order to form tumor
describe peyton rous and sarcoma
Cancer thought at beginning of 20th century to be infectious
In 1909, Rous studied sarcoma in a chicken (avian)
Could transmit tumor
fragment through
implantation - surgically
what did peyton rous do - experiment
Filtered tumor homogenate was infectious and led to new tumors
Carcinogenic agent was a virus, now called Rous sarcoma virus (RSV)
remove sarcoma and break into small chunks of tissue, grind up with sand, collect filtrate, only small particles left, inject into chicken = now infected with sarcoma
small quantities of a cell free filtrate have sufficed to transmit susceptible chickens, since filtering = makes particles smaller than cells
what is foci
cells that grow on top of each other - transformed
name the 7 characteristics of cellular transformation
- Immortalization (ability to proliferate indefinitely)
- Altered morphology (round shape)
- Loss of contact inhibition (ability to grow over one another)
- Anchorage-independent growth (growing without attachment to solid substrate)
- Reduced requirement for growth factors
- Increased transport of glucose
- Tumorgenicity
describe loss of contact inhibition
allows cells to grow on top of each other - since transformed
describe anchorage independent growth
can grow in soft agar like jello
describe pet scan
2-Deoxy-2-(18F)fluoro-d-glucose positron- emission tomography (FGD-PET) makes it possible to visualize tumors in the body that have concentrated large amounts of glucose
radiolabelled version of glucose - tumors love glucose, will start to give off positrons and is picked up by scanner
describe the general scientific mood in the 1970s regarding what causes cancer
Some believed tumor viruses are causative agents of all human cancers - now we know its not trues
Others believed instead that cellular genes may
often be responsible for cancer.
name a few exs of viruses implicated in human cancer causation
epstein barr = burkitt lymphoma
HCV = hepatocyte carcinoma
HPV = cervical carcinoma