molecular basis of cancer

Question 1

what can DNA damage carcinogens cause?

Answer 1

reaction with free radicals (radiation),

cross links and adducts and DNA breaks, these all increase the rate of mutation when trying to REPAIR THIS DAMAGE

Question 2

what things can increase chances of cancer?

Answer 2

inflammation
immune suppression (HIV)
food choices (radiation)
tissue growth and hormones (breast and prostate cancer)

Question 3

why do they say people that inherit the faulty P53 allele is dominant?

Answer 3

as they will develop that cancer later in their lives

Question 4

how do you screen for bowel cancer?

Answer 4

focal occult blood test

Question 5

how does fractionated radiotherapy work?

Answer 5

give one dose then rest, then another dose, then rest etc.

the normal non-cancerous cells are better at recovering than the cancer cells.

Question 6

how does brachytherapy work?

Answer 6

little pellets of radioactive material, radtion one goes a short way so does not affect the non-cancer cells

Question 7

what is mitotic catastrophe radiotherapy?

Answer 7

damage to the DNA, cells initially survive but the more rounds of mitosis they go through, the more damage the genome gets and it can no longer keep dividing and they die from mitotic catastrophe.

Question 8

what are some other cancer treatments?

Answer 8

antibodies against the specific antigens involved with the cancer,
small molecule inhibitor [can help stop translocation etc which forms the oncogenes]
synthetic lethality [DNA repair inhibitors BRCA1 breast cancer]
angiogenesis inhibitors [tumours cannot survive without blood supply so inhibit VEGF]