Theme 5: Neoplasia - Part 4 Flashcards
What are the three steps in the way malignant tumours behave?
- invasion
- metastasis
- angiogenesis
What does invasion mean?
-invades adjacent normal tissue
How do epithelial cells change in cancer to help the spread?
- in health, epithelial cells are tightly connected, polarised and tethered to each other
- mesenchymal cells are loosely connected, able to migrate
- in cancer, epithelial cells gain mesenchymal properties and can invade and migrate
How do epithelial cells invade and migrate in cancer?
- increased motility
- decreased adhesion
- production of proteolytic enzymes
- mechanical pressure
What are cadherins?
cell to cell adhesion molecule - attaches epithelial cells to EACH OTHER
-a mutation in this will reduce cell-cell adhesion
What are integrins?
cell to matrix adhesion molecule and receptor
changes in integrin expression leads to decreased cell-matrix adhesion
What is the most important proteolytic enzyme in neoplastic invasion?
matrix metalloproteinases
Which cells are matrix metalloproteinases secreted by?
malignant neoplastic cells
What are the three major types of matrix metalloproteinases?
- Interstitial collagenases —> degrade type I, II, III collagen
- Gelatinases —> degrades type IV collagen and gelatin
- Stromelysins —> degrades type IV collagen and proteoglycans
In normal tissue regulation, how are proteolytic enzymes balanced and how does this change in cancer?
tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases balance matrix metalloproteinases
In cancer, cancer favours ECM breakdown so there are more matrix metalloproteinases
What are the clinical effects of invasion?
- uncontrolled proliferation and invasion –> mass
- mass can occlude/put pressure on vessels
- malignant neoplasms invade along “path of least resistance” -usually blood vessels or nerves. cartilage and bone are extremely resistant to neoplastic invasion
What is metastasis?
tumour spreads from site of origin (primary) to a distant site to establish tumour there (secondary)
-often secondary tumour exceeds primary lesion
What might be presenting clinical features of metastasis?
bone lesions and palpable lymph nodes
What are the 6 steps in the metastatic sequence?
- detachment invasion
- intravasation (invasion of cancer cells through basement membrane into blood vessel)
- survival against host defences
- adherence extravasation - bind to blood vessel and exit
- growth
- angiogenesis
How do neoplastic cells become motile?
loss of surface adhesion molecules and imbalance of proteolytic enzymes that mean the ECM is broken down
What are 3 routes of metastasis?
- Lymphatics
- form secondary tumours in lymph nodes
- most common route initially for carcinomas - Haematogenous (blood)
- commenest route for sarcomas
- organs involved are lungs, liver, bone and brain - transcoelomic
- spread across the peritoneal/ pleural cavity
- will lead to effusion containing neoplastic cells
What is the difference between carcinomas and sarcomas?
carcinomas - cancers that develop in epithelial cells and sarcomas develop in mesenchymal tissue
What is angiogenesis?
growth of blood vessels on existing vasculature
How do tumour cells promote angiogenesis?
they express vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)
What does stage mean?
The extent of tumour spread - has the tumour metastasised?
What does grade mean?
how aggressive is the tumour? how different does it look from tissue of origin?
Explain the TNM Tumour staging system?
T - extent of tumour spread:
- T0: no evidence of primary tumour
- T1-T4: increasing size/ invasion of tumour
N- extent of nodal spread
- N0: no regional node metastases
- N1-N3: increasing involvement of nodes
M- presence or absence of distant metastases
-M0: no distant metastases
-M1: distant metastases present
Mx - unable to comment
Explain the Dukes staging system?
For Colorectal cancer:
A- Invades into but not through the bowel wall
B- Invades through the bowel wall, but no LN metastases
C- Local lymph nodes involved
D- distant metastases
How do we stage lymphoma?
Stage I: Lymphoma in one group of lymph nodes
Stage II: lymphoma in 2 or more groups of lymph nodes
Stage III: lymphoma on both sides of diaphragm
Stage IV: lymphoma in other organs/bone marrow/ liver or lung
How is lymphoma further classified?
A - symptoms absent
B- symptoms present e.g fever, weight loss
What factors do we consider when determining the grade of cancer?
- differentiation = how much cancer cells resemble normal tissue
- pleomorphism = the variation in size and shape of cancer cells
- proliferation = mitotic figure, how many cells are actively dividing
What is a poorly differentiated, high grade tumour?
cells hardly resemble those of normal tissue
What are the 6 hallmarks of cancer?
- self sufficiency in growth signals
- insensitivity to anti-growth signals
- tissue invasion & metastasis
- limitless replicative potential
- sustained angiogenesis
- evading apoptosis