Outline Disease Process Flashcards
What is cancer?
A disorderly growth of epithelial cells which invade adjacent tissue and spread by lymphatics and blood vessels to other parts of the body
What does monoclonal mean?
Arises from single cell
What are some characteristics of cancer cells?
Loss of contact inhibition, increase in growth factor secretion, increase in oncogene expression and loss of tumour supressor gene
What types of carcinogens are there?
Chemical, physical and viral
By what mechanisms can carcinogens enduce cancer?
Chromosome translocation, gene amplification and oncogene activation
What are so-called promotors of cancer?
Oncogenes and growth factors
What are two ways in which growth factors work?
Autocrine and paracrine
What is the most commonly altered gene in human tumours?
P53
What is the normal function of p53?
Transcriptional regulator and promotor of DNA repair, apoptosis and differentiation
What can alter the p53 gene?
DNA damage and hypoxia
What point of the cell cycle does the p53 gene regulate?
G1/S checkpoint control gene
What are the characteristics of metastasis?
It’s not random, is a cascade of limited sequential steps, involves tumour-host interactions, ‘survival of the fittest’ pertains
What is the process of metastasis?
Tumour invades through basement membrane, moves into ECM/CT/surrounding cells, invades blood vessels and the tumour cells are ‘arrested’ in distant organ
Why is angiogenesis important in tumour formation?
Allow tumour mass to expand in diameter, degrades the ECM and helps malignant tumours progress
What is the term used to describe cancer cells invading the basal membrane into a blood of lymphatic vessel?
Intravasation
