Other Treatments For Cancer

Question 1

What is the aim of surgery in treating cancer?

Answer 1

Remove entire tumour including any micro metastases in surrounding tissues, removed cancerous tissue can be checked for any presence of micro metastases.

Question 2

How does radiotherapy work?

Answer 2

Damages the DNA of the affected cells directly or indirectly or cis formation of free radicals that damage DNA

Radiotherapy is delivered in fractions, can be given externally, internally or systemically.

Question 3

Side effects of radiotherapy

Answer 3

Early effects:

Skin irritation 
Salivary gland loss
Hair loss
Oesophagitis
Diarrhoea, constipation, cystitis
Fatigue
Nausea and vomiting

Late effects:

Fiborsis
Diarrhoea, bleeding
Memory loss
Infertility

Question 4

What are Targeted Therapies?

Answer 4

Drugs that target a particular pathway involved in cancer cell growth, spread, development, they can target enzymes, antigens.

Question 5

What is an example drug of a Targeted Therapy

Answer 5

Tamoxifen, used in oestrogen receptors in breast cancer

Question 6

Cell cycle is controlled by what?

Answer 6

Cyclins and cyclin dependant kinases, when activated or inhibited, it controls cell division

Question 7

What genes can precent cell division?

Answer 7

Tumour Suppressor Genes (TSG)s, these can become mutated in cancer, so cell division is uncontrolled.

Question 8

What do oncogenes do?

Answer 8

Can affect cell differentiation and apoptosis to:

produce more gene products, increased transcription, gene amplification, gene fusion products with oncogenic potentional

Question 9

What are PARP Inhibitors

Answer 9

PARP Inhibitors are drugs that stop the enzyme poly polymerase from repairing single strand breaks in damaged DNA, This enzyme can enable cancer cells to survive and grow

Question 10

What is an example of a PARP 1 Inhibitor?

Answer 10

Olaparib, used for patients with BRCA1/2 negative ovarian cancer.

PARP Drugs are effective in treating BRCA 1/2 tumours and PARL so inhibition of both these proteins leads to tumour death.

Question 11

What drugs target proteins involved in gene expression regulation?

Answer 11

Tretinoin and Bexarotene

Question 12

What drug is an inducer of apoptosis target therapy?

Answer 12

Bortezomib is the drug, it is a proteasome inhibitor

Question 13

What are the Angiogenesis Inhibitor Target Therapy drugs?

These drugs prevent tumours getting nutrients from their blood vessels for growth

Answer 13

Bevacizumab
Sorafenib
Sunitinib
Pazopanib

Question 14

What are the immune system activated target therapies

These drugs bind to antigens on cancer cells which triggers immune responses and thus destroys the cancer cell

Answer 14

Rituximab
Alemtuzumab
Ofatumumab
Ipilimumab
Pembrolizumab
Nivolumab

Question 15

What are the two main types of Vaccines involved in target therapy?

Answer 15

Prophylactic - Prevent cancer development before it starts, like the HPV vaccine

Therapeutic - used to help the immune response against cancer, like sipuleucel T

Question 16

Whats the final treatment option for cancer?

Answer 16

Stem cell transplantation, involves eliminating the haematopoietic and immune system by chemo or radio therapy, and then replacing with stem cells from someone else, themselves, or older stem cells.

Question 17

What are the 3 different types of stem cell transplantation?

Answer 17

Syngeneic - From identical twin
Allogenenic - From another person
Autologous - From patients own stem cells

Question 18

What is the BSA Equation?

Answer 18

BSA (m2) = square root of:

height cm x weight kg / 3600