Lecture 23: Cancer - Looking to the future

Question 1

What are the hallmarks of cancer?

Answer 1

Emerging hallmarks:
1. Deregulating cellular energetics
2. Avoiding immune destruction

Enabling characteristics:
1. Genome instability and mutation
2. Tumour promoting inflammation

Question 2

What are the projected change in incident rates of cancer between 2014 and 2035?

Answer 2

2% increase

Question 3

What are the causes of cancer?

Answer 3

1. Hereditary (<5%)
2. Environmental
   a. radiation
   b. chemical
   c. hazards in workplace
3. Lifestyle
   a. diet
   b. smoking
   c. alcohol
   d. sex
4. Viruses

1/5 OF ALL CANCERS ATTRIBUTE TO SMOKING

Question 4

What percentage of cancers are preventable?

Answer 4

Approximately 70%

Question 5

How can we prevent cancer?

Answer 5

1. Avoid tobacco in all forms - including second hand smoke
2. Eat properly - reduces saturated fat, red meat. Increase fruit
   veg, whole grains
3. Regular exercise - reduce colon, breast, reproductive cancer
   risk
4. Stay lean - obesity increases risk of many cancer forms
5. Alcohol - increases risk of mouth, liver, larynx, oesophagus, liver
   colon, female breast cancer
6. Avoid radiation - medical imaging, environmental radon, UV.
7. Avoid industrial & environemental toxins - asbestos, benzene,
   PCBs
8. Avoid infections - Hepatitis viruses, HIV, human papillomavirus
9. Quality sleep - indirectly affects weight gain
10. Vitamin D - reduce prostate, colon, and other cancers

Question 6

How can cancer be improved (research and clinically)?

Answer 6

Prevention
Cancer genetics
Improve diagnostics
Targeted therapies & immunotherapies
Overcoming resistance

Question 7

What is being done?

Answer 7

100,000 genomes project
Cancer 2.0
Cancer Genome Atlas
Blood tests for cancer - before symptoms are present