Ready To Study: The Cancer Patient Part 2 Flashcards
- X-Rays
- Endoscopy
- Urine and Stool tests
- Blood tests for tumor markers
- Ultrasound
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
- Computed Tomography (CT Scan)
These are the methods used that are used to determine the location and type of _______ suspected.
cancer
A _______ is a type of exfoliative cytology that means we are scraping some cells off of an area and sending those cells to the lab to be examined under a microscope. They are going to look to see if it looks like a cervical cell or if it looks different than it should.
Pap Smear
Study Tip: It’s very useful because remember what cancer cells have in common that would make this a useful test. They are NONCOHESIVE. They are not cohesive and normal cells are cohesive, if your cells weren’t cohesive your leg would fall off or something. Cancer cells are just dying to get somewhere else so they exfoliate VERY easily.
_________ cytology can also performed on other body areas and some secretions, they can do it in the lungs, so they’ll do a bronchoscopy, and they can get a brushing of the cells to slough those cells off and study them. American Cancer Society recommends _______ exams in women who are sexually active and/or have reached age 18.
Exfoliative
Annual
A Pap smear is a Microscopic examination of cells prepared slide for a cytotechnologist.
Useful because of what biological property of the cancer cells?
Non cohesiveness
Biopsy is the removal of a tissue specimen for microscopic study. The picture is showing that through needle ________ they just put the biopsy tip of the needle into the area where the tumor is and take a tissue sample and take it to the lab to look at it.
aspiration
They can do a laparoscopy procedure and get some tissue samples as well as ________ surgery which involves just cutting the tissue out.
excision
These secretions are produced normally but they will be overproduced due to a cancer.
What is this defined as?
Tumor Markers
These are antigens expressed on the surface of tumor cells or substances released from normal cells in response to the presence of a tumor.
What is this defined as?
Tumor Markers
These are not used for diagnosing on their own, they are used for screening, they can help in diagnosis, and can help in establishing a prognosis, also used to monitor treatment, and detecting recurrent diseases.
What is this defined as?
Tumor Markers
What does prognosis mean?
What’s the outlook, do you have a good prognosis, a great prognosis, or a grim prognosis this means that’s there’s not a lot of hope for their survival.
A tumor marker as you see in this picture the different types of tumor markers that there are.
Lung cancer secrete both _______ and _______.
What is this defined as?
CA125
CEA
Blood tests for _______ are used to detect substances that might be present in the body as a result of there being a cancer.
tumor markers
Study Tip: Some cancers do put out chemicals and things that are detectable in these tests.
_______ is a tumor marker that is listed under lung, breast, stomach, pancreas, colon, and ovarian cancer.
CEA
CEA tumor markers means __________ and that’s telling you there are cancer cells present.
carcinogenic embryonic antigen
FYI
___________ test is fine but just so you know it’s not very specific of what type of cancer it is. This test tells us there is something going on but it doesn’t tell us what.
Carcinogenic embryonic antigen
FYI
You see the _______ tumor marker can be present in both the breast and the lungs.
_______ is present in amniotic fluid and also present when there is liver cancer. You do not have to memorize these different markers, just need to see and be familiar about them and what they mean.
CA125
AFP is alpha fetal protein
FYI
The _______ means how helpful the marker is it to us, how sensitive it is meaning that it’s detected early in the disease process and there’s very few false negatives so it’s going to be there and it’s going to tell us what we want to know, and it’s very sensitive so it picks up on small amounts or it’s there w/ a small amount of disease. What is this defined as?
value of a marker
Present early and few false negatives. What is this defined as in relation to the value of a tumor marker?
Sensitivity.
Specific to the cancer and not elevated in other diseases. What is this defined as in relation to the value of a tumor marker?
Specificity.
Study Tip: CEA is specific to cancer it’s not specific to one type of cancer but it is specific to cancer. This is one of the 1st markers Drs. look for when they would do a CEA on a person to see how they were progressing in their treatment and whether or not the cancer had come back.
This means that if your marker level is high there is a high amount of tumor growth. There’s equality there. The level of this marker accurately reflects tumor growth. What is this defined as in relation to the value of a tumor marker?
Proportionality.
Readily available, easy to use, not cost prohibitive. What is this defined as in relation to the value of a tumor marker?
Feasibility.
________ is done to determine the progress of the growth of the malignancy, we get a piece of tissue through a biopsy and we examine it under microscopic examination to determine the level of differentiation and number of mitoses. Ex. how fast it’s growing.
Staging and Grading
What distinguishes Grades I, II, III, and IV. Increasing anaplasia or lack of differentiation?
Grade 1 is a well differentiated cell so the mutation in the genetic components of the cell happen farther along in differentiation and then it progressively goes to lack of differentiation. Grade 4 is a lack of differentiation or anaplasia.
Study Tip: There are 2 things here; grading has to do with how quickly it’s growing, remember the less differentiation the more rapidly it grows.
Staging has to do with whether or not there is metastasis.
This determines whether or not it has spread.
Stage ___ is very small it is not going to have spread anywhere all the way up to Stage ___ which is going to be spread to other organs.
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