Therapeutic Options Flashcards
What two approaches are there to therapeutic options?
Preventative and Treatment measure
What four main aspects of preventative options are there?
Diet, screening, genetics and medication
What are the current three parts of advice concerning diet?
- Eat five or more pieces of fruit a day
- Avoid obesity
- Take regular exercise
Describe three examples of high quality research evidence in screening programmes
Cervical cancer - smear tests
Colo-rectal cancer (CRC) - Faecal occult blood tests
Breast cancer - mammography
What percentage decrease in mortality has been seen as a result of faecal occult blood testing for CRC?
16%
What are two more controversial screening methods concerning prostate and lung cancer?
Prostate - Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test
Lung - MR/CT scanning and breath test
Describe genetic links/predispositions for CRC and breast cancer respectively
CRC is associated with familial adenomatous polyposis coli (FAP)
Breast cancer is associated with BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes
Outline a chemo-preventative measure for primary breast cancer
Prophylactic tamoxifen
Outline a chemo-preventative measure for primary oesophageal cancer
Diet supplemented with anti-oxidants
Outline a chemo-preventative measure for development of secondary cancers having previously developed H&N/lunch cancers
Dietary anti-oxidant supplementation
Treatment is divided into two categories - what are they?
Local/Regional treatment and Systemic treatment
What proportion of cancers are cured by surgical intervention?
50%
Outline the five R’s of radiobiology
Radiosensitivity Repair Re-population Re-oxygenation Re-assortment
What proportion of cancers are cured by radiotherapy?
40%
Radiotherapy causes some nasty side effects and this effects palliation - explain this
Palliation is related to alleviating symptoms without curing the pathology - radiotherapy causes sickness, pain, bleeding etc.
What proportion of cancers are cured by chemotherapy?
3%
Systemic treatment is beneficial to what type of cancer?
Widespread/late-stage (metastasised)
What are the four indications for the the use of cytotoxic drugs?
Curative, Adjuvant, Neoadjuvant and Palliative
Outline the function of adjuvant and neoadjuvant drugs
Improve survival/reduce morbidity
What are the benefits of hormone therapy?
Its a specific response
Outline a chemo-preventative hormone therapy in ER+ breast cancer
Tamoxifen
What hormone therapy is useful in the fight against prostate cancer?
Luteinizing-hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) antagonists
What are the benefits of immunotherapy?
Can be a highly specific response
What three immunological approaches are there to cancer treatment?
Monoclonal antibodies, Programmed cell death pathway and chimeric antigen receptors T-cell activation
