Neoplasia I h/o Flashcards
What’s a neoplasm?
“tumor”
benign or malignant cell proliferation
How can you look at a tumor and decide it’s benign vs. malignant?
Benign tumors generally have non-invasive margins and have a fibrous capsule of some sort
Malignant tumors have progressively infiltrative growth accompanied by destruction of surrounding tissue
What’s a carcinoma refer to?
Malignant neoplasm of epithelial cells
Common examples are lymph nodes, breast
What’s a Sarcoma?
Malignant neoplasm of mesenchyme-derived tissue
Hematogenous (lung or liver), bone, fat, muscle
What’s a Taratoma?
Mixed germ cell tumor
-has more than one germ cell layer. Can even have a combination of all 3 (endo, meso, ectoderm)
Pretty gross, can make hair and sebum and smell terrible
What’s a Hamartoma?
Mass of mature but disorganized tissue indigenous to its site
-not a neoplasm, just a developmental anomaly
What’s a Choristoma?
mass of normal tissue present outside it’s normal site
-not a neoplasm, just a developmental anomaly
What’s a Polyp?
Macroscopic projection above a mucosal surface
can be a bump or a nodule on top of a stalk
What’s the word that refers to a polyp on a stalk?
A pedunculated polyp
opposite would be sessile, or flat
What’s anaplasia?
Lack of visible differentiation of malignant tumors
-look like primitive unspecialized cells
What’s the difference between an anaplastic cell and a primitive unspecialized cell?
- Larger
- Higher nuclear/cytoplasm ratio
- varying in size and shape
- nuclear abnormalities (clumped chromatin, etc)
What’s desmoplasia?
formation of fibrous tissue as a result of injury
-Carcinomas commonly have dense fibrosis around them
What’s a “Carcinoma in situ?”
A tissue with the features of a malignant cell mass, but without visible invasion.
Looks like it’s capable of metastasizing, but not 100% certain
What are the most common causes of cancer death?
- Lung
- Breast (women), Prostate (men)
- Colon
What are the six hallmarks of cancer?
- Self sufficiency in growth signals
- Insensitivity to anti-growth signals
- Tissue invasion and metastasis
- Limitless replicative potential
- Sustained angiogenesis
- Evading apoptosis