Principles of Cancer Treatment Flashcards
If cancer is localised, what would the treatment option be?
Surgical removal of the primary cancer accompanies by additional drug or radiation treatment to kill residual cancer
What is the objective of cancer treatment?
To maximize the effects on cancer while minimizing the side effects on normal cells
What kind of cancers are not suitable for surgery?
Cancers of blood cells, leukaemia´s
Solid cancers that have metastasised to inaccessible sites like bone and brain
What is the Cytostatic effect?
Prevention of cell proliferation
-prevents growth but doesn’t eliminate cancer
What is the cytotoxic effect?
-potential to cure a patient
The killing of cancer cells
What can be used specifically to treat major cancers like prostate and breast?
Hormone treatments
What is metastasis?
A process specific to cancers and has its own control mechanisms which include angiogenesis
What does prognosis mean?
The likely duture behaviour of a cancer and can also determine the likely outcome for the patient
What are prognostic factors in relation to cancer?
Clinical features such as tumour size or tumour spread and specific biochemical markérs or tumour markers in tissue or blood associated with the tumour
What does Remission mean?
A decline in cancer size as a result of treatment
What does relapse mean?
The reappearance of a cancer
How can cancer cells be prevented from being generated? What is an example of this
By using vaccination
Cervical cancer vaccine - vaccine against the Human Papilloma virus which is the causative agent for cervical cancer
What are the definitions that are applied to cancers responses to treatment and what do they mean?
–When a cancer disappears completely - complete repsonse
–Partially removed/some remains - partial response
–Remains static - no change
–Continues to grow - progressive disease
What are the 2 criteria used in defining cancer?
- Tumour size and the degree of spread- STAGE of disease
- Cellular characteristics of the cancer- GRADE
What criteria is staging based on?
TNM system
1. Tumour size
2. Spread to lymph Nodes
3. Metastasis to distant sites
Difference between a Stage 1 cancer and a Stage 4 cancer
A Stage 1 cancer is one of small size that has not progressed outside its original state whereas a stage 4 growth is large and has spread widely to other parts of the body
Differences between low grade and high grade tumour
A low grade tumour has histological resemblance to the tissue of origin whereas a high grade cancer has undergone so many changes that it only marginally resembles the tissue of origin
Criteria for grading a tumour
Number of mitoses, irregularities in nuclear shape, and relative architectural resemblance to normal tissue
Why does early detection of cancer mean better results?
The earlier a cancer is detected the fewer chnages it has undergone and the more likelihood there will be of getting a good response to treatment
How does Radiotherapy work?
Radiation such as X rays damage DNA and may kill the cancer cells
DNA can be irreversibly damaged by ionizing radiation such as x rays - can affect healthy tissue too
How can the effect of damging healthy cells be minimised in radiation therapy?
By fine focusing of radiation onto the cancer
By dividing the total dose into several fractions given over several weeks
What kind of drugs is the name ‘chemotherapy’ given to and what kind of cells do these drugs best effect? Whhat does its efficiency depend onß
Drugs whose actions are largely based on blocking cell proliferation
Most effective against rapidly dividing cells
Efficiency depends on concentration of the drug reaching the tumour and duration of this exposure
How can side effects of chemotherapy be minimised?
By using a combination of drugs with different toxicities
What does Primary Chemotherapy mean?
Describes its use as a first line of treatment for local disease
