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Undeleted > Molecular Biology of Cancer > Flashcards

Molecular Biology of Cancer Flashcards

1
Q

What is Neoplasia?

A

Tumour growth

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2
Q

What is Neoplasm ?

A

Tumour

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3
Q

What is adenocarcinoma

A

a malignant tumour of glandular epithelium

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4
Q

What is adenoma ?

A

-a solid, benign glandular tumour

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5
Q

What is anaplasia?

A

loss of differentiated charachteristics

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6
Q

What is aneuploidy?

A

presence of extra chromosome

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7
Q

What is angiogenesis?

A

new growth of blood vessels

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8
Q

What is a benign tumour?

A

-a tumour that does not invade or metastasize

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9
Q

What is a carcinoma ?

A
  • malignant tumour of epithelium
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10
Q

What is hyperplasia?

A

increase in number of cells in response to stimulus

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11
Q

What is Leukemia ?

A

-malignant disease of blood forming organs leading to over production of neoplastic white blood cells

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12
Q

What is lymphoma ?

A
  • solid tumour of T or B lymphocytes e.g. in lymph nodes, thymus or spleen
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13
Q

What is a malignant tumour?

A

-tumour that is capable of invading surrounding tissues and of metastasizing

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14
Q

What is metaplasia?

A

-abnormal alternation in the structure of cells

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15
Q

What is metastasis?

A

-a secondary tumour arising from cells carried to a distant site from a primary tumour

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16
Q

What is a myeloma ?

A

a plasma cell tumour

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17
Q

What is an oncogene?

A

-a gene causing cancer

18
Q

What is a proto-oncogene?

A

-the normal cellular counterpart of an oncogene

19
Q

What is a sarcoma?

A

a malignant tumor of mesenchyme (connective tissue)

20
Q

What is a transformation?

A

-in the context of cancer means a change of morphological appearance of a cell

21
Q

What is a tumour suppressor gene?

A

-genes whose normal role is to regulate cell division in a negative fashion ( leading to cell growth arrest) and following mutation or loss of one or both alleles , may have the effect of allowing cells to progress through cell division in an unrestricted fashion.

22
Q

What is Cancer?

A

Uncontrolled cell Division and Uncontrolled cell Survival

  • in cancer cells there is loss of control of both the division /differentiation process and apoptosis.
23
Q

What statistics do you know about cancer?

A
  • 1 in 3 people will suffer from cancer in their life
  • 1 in 4 deaths due to cancer
  • 6 million new cases every year worldwide.
24
Q

How many forms of cancer are there?

A
  • more than 200 different forms of cancer
  • they differ according to the cell type from which they derive.
  • 85% are epithelial origin called carcinomas
  • these cells form the barrier layer exposed to ‘carcinogens’ in the environment
  • skin cancers are ‘ basal cell carcinoma ‘ ,
  • lung cancers are ‘ adenocarcinoma ‘
  • colon cancers are ‘ colorectus carcinoma’
25
Q

Other origins of cancer cells?

A

-1% - from connective tissue
(sarcomas )
- 8% - from haemapoetic cells
(lymphomas, leukaemias )

26
Q

different cancer types have very different prognosis? ( give examples)

A

e.g.
cancer of the lip -99% survival
cancer of lung - 8% survival

27
Q

Factors that control survival time?

A
  • early diagnosis
  • lack of spread to other sites
  • response to treatment
  • quality of care
28
Q

What is the Molecular basis of cancer?

A
  • mutations in the DNA that codes for genes whose products are normally involved in the control of division, differentiation and cell survival
  • most mutations are somatic !
  • some are inherited !
  • this has lead to great insights into normal growth and development
29
Q

Why is it said that cancer is a multistep process?

A
  • because many unlikely mutations must accumulate in one cell
  • mutations that affect genetic stability are of especial importance
    -these mutations allow new variants to arise more quickly
  • cancer cells are genetically unstable
    which allows rapid evolution - therefore allowing drug resistance
30
Q

What are the stages in tumour development?

A
  1. mild dysplasia (25-30 divisions)
  2. severe dysplasia (100 million cells visible on xray)
  3. carcinoma in situ (1000 million cells tumour is palpable )
  4. invasive carcinoma - (tumour breaks through basement membrane )
  5. malignant metastasis ( 1,000,000 million cels tumour throughout body and organs - death!)
31
Q

What are some charachteristics of tumours?

A
  • avoiding immune response
  • tumour promoting inflammation
  • deregulating cellular energetics
  • genome instability and mutation
  • the tumour microenvironment is very different from normal tissues.
  • the tumour cells have adapted a glycotic metabolism
32
Q

What is the genetic basis of human cancer?

A
  • activation of genes by mutation that promote cell proliferation and cell survival
  • dominant gain of function mutations
  • protooncogene mutates to oncogene
  • regulated growth signal /survival signal ==== mutation === unregulated growth signal / survival signal
  • inactivation of genes by mutation that normally limit cell proliferation and cell survival
  • recessive loss of function mutations
  • tumour supresser gene ==== mutations ==== mutant tumour supressor gene
33
Q

What do we know about tumour supressor genes?

A
  • because loss of function mutation need to lose both parental copies for affect to be seen
  • if you inherit a germ line mutation in one you are at a greater risk of developing cancer.
34
Q

What are some examples of tumour suppressor genes?

A
  • p53 gene - mutant in more than 50% of human cancerss
  • part of cells checkpoint repsonse to DNA damage
  • retinoblastaoma gene - mutant in all retinoblastomas but also lung and other cancers.
  • key negative regulator of the transcription of genes needed for cell cycle.

-adenomatous polypossis coli gene (APC) mutant in most colorectal cancers at early stage in disease. involved in chromosome stability

HmutS gene - mutant in some forms of colorectal cancer - mutations cause a defect in DNA mismatch repair

35
Q

What is the relationship between mutations and cancer?

A
  • since somativ mutation of DNA underlies cancer development it is thought that:
  1. mutagens are carcinogens
  2. cancer is avoidable if mutagen exposure can be reduced.
  3. mutagen testing can help identify cancer causing agents in the environment.
36
Q

Give some examples of oncogenes?

A
  • mutant growth factor receptors
  • single cascade components
  • transcription factors
  • cell-cell components
  • anti- apoptotic factors
37
Q

What are chromosomal translocations?

A

it is found that in cancer there is chromosomal instability
- tumours are aneuploid ( incorrect number - triploid, haploid )
- tumours have many brokem and rearranged chromosomes clearly seen using FISH and CGH techniques
= careful cytology on leukaemias showed certain common very conserved events.

38
Q

What is Gene Amplication?

A
  • cytological examination of tumours shows double minute chromosomes
  • cytological examination of tumours shows HSRs homogenously staining regions
  • both contain multiple copies of same Chromosomal fragment.
39
Q

What is gene sequencing?

A
  • Human genome sequence ‘ complete’
  • cancer genome sequencing project
  • use of next generation sequencing
  • exosome sequencing
40
Q

What is hypoxia’s role in tumour development?

A
  • the tumour cells are often exposed to low oxygen, hypoxia or inflammation
41
Q

What are cancer cell migration steps ( 5 steps !)?

A
  1. escape from the tumour
  2. invasion of vascular system
  3. movement through the blood stream
  4. homing to distant organs
  5. attachment
  6. invasion
42
Q

What is cancer therapy ?

A
  • understand the genetic defect
  • find the achillies heel of the cancer
  • block new blood vessel formation
  • change the microenvironment
  • target on mutant cells
  • personalised cancer treatment.

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