*Pathology (6)

Question 1

What are the 4 main points that pathologists want to find out from a cancer resection?

Answer 1

Is it out?
What is it?
How far has it gone?
How bad is it? (how malignant is it behaving)

Question 2

What does the presence of a capsule around a neoplasia indicate?

Answer 2

It is slow growing - slow growing usually = benign (the body has tried to fence it off from surrounding tissue)

Question 3

Are malignant tumours normally homogenous or heterogenous?

Answer 3

Heterogenous - different areas of the tumour look different

Question 4

What is the N:C ratio?

Answer 4

Nuclear: cytoplasmic ratio

A ratio of the size of the nucleus compared to the cytoplasm

Question 5

N:C ratio in cancer?

Answer 5

High

Question 6

What type of cells do cells originate from?

Answer 6

stem cells (cells then receive various signals to mature into a specific cell type with a specific function - they differentiate)

Question 7

Poorly differentiated cells?

Answer 7

Difficult to tell what the cell of origin is

Question 8

What does hyperchromasia mean?

Answer 8

Increased pigment - increased staining capacity - usually highly active cells

Question 9

What are the main groups of cells that cancer forms in? (4)

Answer 9

Epithelial
Mesenchymal (connective tissue)
Haematopoietic (cells that circulate blood)
Others - melanocytic, brain (glial)

Question 10

What tissues do carcinomas affect

Answer 10

Epithelium

Question 11

Benign tumour of glandular epithelium?

Answer 11

Adenoma

Question 12

Cancerous tumour of glandular epithelium?

Answer 12

Adenocarcinoma

Question 13

Benign tumour of squamous epithelium?

Answer 13

Papilloma

Question 14

Malignant tumour of squamous epithelium?

Answer 14

Squamous cell carcinoma

Question 15

Malignant tumour of bladder?

Answer 15

Transitional cell carcinoma - sometimes called urothelial cell carcinoma

Question 16

What is mesenchymal tissue?

Answer 16

Connective tissues e.g. bone, cartilage, peripheral nerves, fat, fibrous tissue, smooth muscle, skeletal muscle, etc.

Question 17

What are mesenchymal malignancies called?

Answer 17

Sarcomas

Question 18

Benign tumour of fat?

Answer 18

Lipoma

Question 19

Malignant tumour of fat?

Answer 19

Liposarcoma (e.g. retroperitoneum, testicular - rare)

Question 20

Benign tumour of bone?

Answer 20

Osteoma

Question 21

Malignant tumour of bone?

Answer 21

Osteosarcoma

Question 22

Benign tumour of cartilage?

Answer 22

Enchondroma

Question 23

Malignant tumour of cartilage?

Answer 23

Chondrosarcoma

Question 24

Benign tumour of skeletal muscle?

Answer 24

Rabdomyoma

Question 25

Malignant tumour of skeletal muscle?

Answer 25

Rabdomyosarcoma

Question 26

Benign tumour of smooth muscle?

Answer 26

Leiomyoma

Question 27

Benign tumour of smooth muscle?

Answer 27

Leiomyosarcoma

Question 28

Benign tumour of nerves? (2)

Answer 28

Neurofibroma, schwannoma

Question 29

Malignant tumour of nerves?

Answer 29

Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour

Question 30

Benign tumour of blood vessels?

Answer 30

Haemangioma, etc.

Question 31

Malignant tumour of blood vessels? (2)

Answer 31

Angiosarcoma, Kaposi's sarcoma

Question 32

What are CNS cancers?

Answer 32

Gliomas

Question 33

What are melanocytes?

Answer 33

Melanin-producing cells

Question 34

What is an ephelis?

Answer 34

Freckle

Question 35

What is a navus?

Answer 35

Mole

Question 36

What are cancers formed from melanocytes?

Answer 36

Melanomas

Question 37

What does cancer stage describe?

Answer 37

way of describing the size of a cancer and how far it has grown.

Question 38

What type of classification of cancer tells you how far it has spread?

Answer 38

Stage

Question 39

What type of classification tells you how bad (how malignant) the cancer is?

Answer 39

Grade

Question 40

What does tumour grade tell you about a cancer?

Answer 40

How bad the cancer is (how abnormal the cells are)

Question 41

Relation between differentiator and grade?

Answer 41

Well differentiated = low grade and vice versa

Question 42

What is weight loss caused by cancer called?

Answer 42

Cachexia (weight loss due to severe illness)

Question 43

Why do patients with cancer get weight loss?

Answer 43

The tumour use energy to grow but also produce all sorts of molecules that result in increased metabolism throughout the body (mainly TNF)

Question 44

What is often the cause of sudden death in patients with known cancer?

Answer 44

Invasion of a large vessel

Question 45

What is paraneoplastic syndrome?

Answer 45

A syndrome (a set of signs and symptoms) that is the consequence of cancer in the body but that, unlike mass effect, is not due to the local presence of cancer cells - often due to hormones and cytokines released by the tumour affecting the immune system e.g. high calcium, low sodium

Question 46

What is osteoarthropathy?

Answer 46

Combination of clubbing arthritis, and periostitis in hands (paraneoplastic)

Question 47

Example of symptoms of paraneoplastic syndrome?

Answer 47

Osteoarthropathy Unusual neurological symptoms Skin rash Fever (abnormal production of pyrogens)

Question 48

What symptoms can bone metastases have?

Answer 48

Pathological fracture Calcium metabolism (high calcium = arrhythmia) Kidney problems