Metastasis

Question 1

cancers that metastasize to the bone marrow

Answer 1

lung, breast, prostate

Question 2

how malignant effusions appear

Answer 2

typically bloody

Question 3

What are the typical steps in metastasis?

Answer 3

local invasion, intravasation into the blood or lymph, circulation through the body, extravasation into the new tissue, proliferation and angiogenesis.

Question 4

How does metastasis occur generally?

Answer 4

via the blood or the lymphatic system or both

Question 5

what is cytogenetics?

Answer 5

• a branch of genetics, but also a part of cell biology/cytology (a subdivision of human anatomy) concerned with how chromosomes relate to cell behaviour
• Techniques include in situ hybridization (FISH) and comparative genomic hybridization (CGH).

Question 6

what does carcinoma mean?

Answer 6

Cancers derived from epithelial cells.

Question 7

what does sarcoma mean?

Answer 7

Cancers arising from connective tissue

Question 8

Is cancer preventable?

Answer 8

Cancer is generally preventable

Question 9

how conventional chemotherapy works?

Answer 9

act by killing cells that divide rapidly, a critical property of most cancer cells.

Question 10

CTC’s importance

Answer 10

• ## CTCs can extravasate and become seeds for the subsequent growth of additional tumors (metastases) in distant organs

Question 11

term for patients presenting with limited metastasis at time of initial cancer diagnosis

Answer 11

synchronous oligometastases

Question 12

what is metachronous oligometastases

Answer 12

• mets that present in patients who’ve undergone curative-intent treatment to locoregional disease

Question 13

what is oligoprogression

Answer 13

one or a limited number of mets (generally five or fewer) recur or progress while systemic therapy continues to control primary site