Molecular Characteristics of Cancer

Question 1

What cancers are associated with BRCA1/2?

Answer 1

breast/ovarian

Question 2

What cancers are associated with MSH/MLH mutations?

Answer 2

colon cancer

Question 3

What cancers are associated with Rb?

Answer 3

retinoblastoma

Question 4

What mutation is associated with Li-Fraumeni?

Answer 4

p53

Question 5

What are the effects of methylation/acetylation on gene activity?

Answer 5

methylation silences

acetylation activates

Question 6

What is a proto-oncogene?

Answer 6

A gene which is non-cancerous when wt, but when mutated becomes an oncogene (ex: krasg12d, mutant b-raf)

Question 7

What does NF1 inhibit?

Answer 7

Ras

Question 8

What is the signaling pathway of EGFR?

Answer 8

EGFR>Ras>Raf>Mek>Erk
Mek aka MAPKK
Erk aka MAPK

Question 9

What drugs target EGFR? (5)

Answer 9

cetuximab, panitumumab, erlotinib, gefitinb, osimertinib

Question 10

What drugs target Her2? (3)

Answer 10

trastuzumab, pertuzumab, lapatinib

Question 11

What is the signaling pathway of PI3K?

Answer 11

PI3K>PIP3>Akt>mTOR

PTEN inhibits PI3K

Question 12

What drugs target VEGF? (4)

Answer 12

bevacizumab, pazopanib, sunitinib, sorafenib

Question 13

What drugs target mTOR?

Answer 13

anything that ends in -olimus

Question 14

What is the difference between quiescence and senescence?

Answer 14

quiescence is reversible growth arrest

Senescence associated with p16ink4a and b-gal

Question 15

What is the Hayflick limit?

Answer 15

Cells can only undergo a certain number of divisions before losing enough telomeres that they undergo senescence

Question 16

What is the breakage-fusion-bridge hypothesis?

Answer 16

The telomere breaks off a chromatid. The ‘free’ ends of the sister chromatids are sticky and fuse to one another. During mitosis an ‘anaphase bridge’ forms. The chromatids will break apart randomly, leaving two daughter cells with uneven chromatids. The cycles continue until a translocation occurs, placing a chromatid on the end and stopping the cycle.