Molecular Pathology Flashcards
What is molecular pathology
The use of molecular techniques in pathology to help diagnose
What is genomics
Part of molecular pathology which involves using only sequencing to look for abnormality in dna or rna
What are the 3 ways in which molecular pathology impacts patients
- Diagnostic
- Prognostic
- Predivtive- to help personalise treatment
How do we diagnose tumours with molecular techniques
- Look down the microscope - will show if high grade or low grade
- Apply a immunohistochemistry- show what the tumour is e.g sarcoma
- Molecular testing- can tell the type of sarcoma
How does molecular pathology help to determine prognosis in high stage of low stage breast cancer
- High stage breast cancer is treated with surgery and then chemotherapy
- low stage breast cancer needs oncotype dx testing which will show how likely the tumour will come back
If low risk: no chemotherapy- good prognosis
If highr risk: chemotherapy needed- bad prognosis
What are the 3 ways in which we can personalise treatment with molecular pathology
- Molecular marker helps determine type chemotherapy to give
- Molecular markers help tell is the patient will benefit from immunotherapy
- molecualr markers help determine if they can recieve targeted molecular therapy
What are the 3 types of molecule alteration that we can look at
- Large scale abnormalities of chromosome structure
- Small scale abnormalities of the DNA sequence e.g point mutations
- Abnormalities of protein expression
What are the small scale sequence changes in a dna
Substitution
Insertion
Deletion
What is substitution
Replacing a base to a different one
What is insertion
Imserting a base into the sequence
What is deletion
Deleting a base
What is a oncogene
A gene that when is activated can cause cancer
What is a tumour supressing gene
Gene that will prevent from developing a cancer
What will happen if a mutation occurs in a tumour supressing gene
It can predispose to developing cancer
What are the 2 ways in which we can detect small scale sequence changes
- Targeted pcr
2. Sequencing
What is a targeted pcr
Using probes that are specific to the pre-determined mutations of interest
In targeted pcr what mutation will you detect
Specifc mutation of that probe
What is sequencing
Sequencing the tumour dna and comparing to a normal reference
What are the 2 types of large scale chromosomal abnormalities that can occur
Translocation
Amplification
What is translocation
Swapping segments of chromosome
What is amplification
When you amplift a gene segment of dna so there are extra copies of it that you shouldnt have
What are the 2 ways of identifying large scale chromosomal abnormalities
FSH
Sequencing
What is FSH (fluorscence in situ hybridisation)?
When we use fluroscener markers to look at the location of specific genes within the genome
If they are in normal locations there isnt translocation
If there are in abnormla location we know there has been translocation