Oncology Flashcards
What is cancer?
Persistent, purposeless proliferation of host cells, often to the detriment of the host
What are overactive oncogens?
Tumour promoting genes that are secondary to mutation
What is the most common gene alteration in human cancer?
Loss of P53
Is a tumour suppressor gene that stops mitosis if there is any DNA damage
What does neoplasia mean?
New/abnormal growth
What are the two features that tumours are described according to?
Tissue of origin
Status
What are benign squamous epithelial tissue tumours called?
Papilloma
What are benign glandular epithelial tissue tumours called?
Adenoma
What are malignant squamous epithelial tissue tumours called?
Squamous cell carcinoma
What are malignant glandular epithelial tissue tumours called?
Adenocarcinoma
What are benign bone mesenchymal tissue tumours called?
Osteoma
What are benign blood vessel mesenchymal tissue tumours called?
Haemangioma
What are malignant bone mesenchymal tissue tumours called?
Osteosarcoma
What are malignant blood vessel mesenchymal tissue tumours called?
Haemangiosarcoma
What are lymphocyte tumours called?
Lymphoma
What is the growth fraction?
The proportion of actively dividing cells in a tumour
When is a tumour most susceptible to treatment?
When the cells are rapidly dividing rather than when the growth fraction reaches a plateau
What type of tumour is an exception bcos it maintains a high growth fraction?
Lymphoreticular tumour - lymphoma
What stage of the cell cycle is resistant to drugs/radiation?
G0 - resting
Important as reservoir of cells can repopulate tumour
In what stage of the cell cycle is chemotherapy most effective?
M phase - mitotic
What stage of the cell cycle is most radioresistant?
S phase
What does the tumour grade depend on?
The mitotic rate
Cellular and nuclear characteristics
What are clues of local invasion of the tumour?
Indistinct boundaries
FIxed in more than one plane
Thickened adjacent tissue
Spontaneous bleeding
What are the 4 methods of metastatic spread?
Blood
Lymphatics
Transcoelomic - across pleural/peritoneal spaces
Iatrogenic - seeding
What are paraneoplastic syndromes?
Signs arising fron the indirect effect of tumours production and release of biologically active substances
What is a haematologic paraneoplastic syndrome?
Anaemia
What is myelophthisis?
When neoplastic invasion directly affects the bone marrow
What does myelophthisis cause?
Cytopenias - decreased production of WBC, RBC etc
What is leukaemia?
When abnormal cells are released into the blood from the bone marrow
How can tumours affect blood cell production?
Myelofibrosis - Replacement of bone marrow with scar tissue
What are 3 causes of blood loss form tumours?
Local haemorrhage
Gastric ulcer from mast cell tumour
Bleeding disorder - thrombocytopenia
What can mast cell tumours cause?
Hyperhistaminaemia
What local effects does hyperhistaminaemia cause?
Oedema
Localised bleeding
Delayed wound healing
What systemic effects does hyperhistaminaemia cause?
Anaphylactic shock
Gastroduodenal ulcer
What is an immune mediated reaction that cancer can cause?
Cross reactivity between cancer cells and healthy cells
What is the most common paraneoplastic syndrome in dogs?
Hypercalcaemia
What causes hypercalcaemia as a paraneoplastic syndrome?
Tumours release a substance called parathyroid hormone-related peptide
What are 3 clinical signs of hypercalcaemia?
PUPD
Muscle weakness
Dehydration/renal failure
What are the two kinds of biopsy?
Cytology
Histopathology
What can cytology determine?
The nature of the tumour eg. Epithelial, mesenchymal
What are some types of cytological methods?
Fine needle aspirates
Touch preparations
Cytospins
What are the features of malignancy?
degree of differentiation cell pleomorphism multiple nuclei anisocytosis nuclear : cytoplasmic ratio mitotic figures clumping of chromatin nuclear pleomorphism multiple nucleoli
What are some types of histological examination?
Surgical - incisional and excisional
Needle
Punch biopsy
What is an incisional surgical biopsy?
Where a piece of the tumour and some healthy tissue is removed
What is an excisional surgical biopsy?
Remove entire cancer plus healthy tissue around it
What are 3 rules of biopsy?
Avoid superficial ulceration/inflammation/necrosis
Ensure adequate depth
Try to include a boundary
What does clinical staging aim to identify?
Cytological grade
Local invasion
Metastatic spread
What is the most common staging system used for cancer?
TNM
T - primary Tumour
N - regional lymph Nodes
M - Metastasis
What determines T in the TNM staging system?
Size and extent of the primary Tumour - up to T4
What determines N in the TNM staging system?
The amount of involvement of the regional lymph Nodes - up to N4
What does M determine in the TNM staging system?
Whether Metastasis is present or not - up to M2
What is M1 and M2 in the TNM staging system?
M1 - single metastasis
M2 -multiple metastasis
What is remission?
When all clinical evidence of cancer has disappeared, but occult cancer cells remain and relapse will occur at some point
What is the only thing that has a chance of curing cancer?
Complete surgical excision
When is local excision used?
Only for truly benign tumours
eg. Fibroma, lipoma
What constitutes wide local excision?
Wider margins - 1 cm
In two tissue planes
When is wide local excision used?
Locally invasive tumours
eg. basal/squamous cell carcinoma
Mast cell tumour
What is compartmental excision?
Resection - removes every tissue compartment with the tumour involves
When is compartmental excision used?
Solid soft tissue sarcomas that infiltrate wider than 1-2cm
What is the most common type of radiation therapy?
External beam radiation therapy
What is brachytherapy?
Radioactive substance emits gamma rays or beta particles close to the tumour
Either on surface or implanted into tumour
What type of brachytherapy is used to treat thyroid tumour?
Radioiodine treatment
What is the most common source of external beam in external beam radiation therapy?
Linear accelerator
When should radiation therapy be used?
Malignant primary tumour with no local/distant metastasisq
What does the response to radiation of the cancer cells depend on?
Radiosensitivity of the cells - rapidly dividing cells are more sensitive
Dose and energy of radiation
What are some acute reactions to radiation therapy?
Skin reddening Vesiculation Desquamation Severe exfoliative dermatitis Localised hair loss
What are some late toxicity symptoms of radiation therapy?
Depigmentation Dermal fibrosis Osteonecrosis Neural necrosis Blindness (enucleation) Neurologic signs
When should chemotherapy be used?
In the early stages - depends on growth fraction as rapidly dividing cells are most susceptible
What does the response to chemo depend on?
Tumour growth rate
Drug resistance
What does fractional cell kill mean?
Cytotoxic drugs only kill a constant fraction of cancer cells - according to first order kinetics
What is the consequence of fractional cell kill?
Difficult to fully eradicate all cancer cells - if start with low number, an even lower number still remain
How do you get around the issue of fractional cell kill?
Use chemotherapy protocol - multiple doses
Surgical debulking
What is primary cytotoxic drug resistance?
Cancer is resistant in the first place
What is secondary cytotoxic drug resistance?
Cancer develops resistance due to mutations and selection of resistant clones
What is multidrug resistance I?
Mutation of the gene encoding the ATP binding cassette export pump
Leading to accumulation of the drug in the cells
Which chemo drugs are affected by multidrug resistance I?
Ivermectin
Doxorubicin
Vincristine
Vinblastine