Tumour Nomenclature

Question 1

What is a neoplasia?

Answer 1

A tumour

Question 2

Give two classifications of cancer

Answer 2

Sporadic and familial

Question 3

What is sporadic cancer?

Answer 3

. Due to environmental factors, not genes
. Mutations take time to be expressed as you’re exposed to more and more carcinogens, so most sporadic cancers occur in adulthood
. Usually one primary site of cancer

Question 4

What is familial cancer?

Answer 4

. Influenced by specific inherited gene
. E.g. two-hit hypothesis, person born with one strike and is matter of time before second hit triggers cancer growth
. Multiple organs can be affected
. Tend to occur at younger age than sporadic cancers

Question 5

What is the tumour-suppressor two-hit hypothesis?

Answer 5

. Person inherits bad P53 gene (first hit), has another functional copy on other chromosome
. Mutation wipes out remaining good P53 gene (second hit) and neoplasia arises

Question 6

What is neoplasia?

Answer 6

Formation of new abnormal tissue (tumour or cancerous)

Question 7

What is hyperplasia?

Answer 7

Over-proliferation of otherwise normal cells

Question 8

What is dysplasia?

Answer 8

Cells division becomes poorly regulated, underlying changes may predispose cancer

Question 9

What is an adenoma?

Answer 9

Benign tumour of glandular tissue

Question 10

What is a polyps?

Answer 10

Abnormal tissue projecting from mucosal membrane

Question 11

is cancer clonal or non-clonal?

Answer 11

Clonal because all cells share mutations from common ancestors (there are sub-clones though)

Question 12

What are oncogenes and what are proto-oncogenes?

Answer 12

Oncogenes are cancerous proto-oncogenes that cause uncontrolled cell division

Question 13

What do tumour-suppressor genes do?

Answer 13

Inhibit cell division

Question 14

What happens in senescence?

Answer 14

. Cells in G0 irreversibly stop dividing when they reach the Hayflick limit (50 cell divisions)

Question 15

How does cancer affect senescence?

Answer 15

. P53 not activated so double strand DNA breaks because telomeres so short
. New weird hybrid chromosomes formed
. This is genetic catastrophe, so cells undergo apoptosis
. In cancer cells, telomerase activates, so cells continue to grow with weird hybrid DNA being used= abnormal cell growth

Question 16

What is a well-differentiated tumour?

Answer 16

Tumour composed of cells which closely resemble the cell of origin

Question 17

What is a poorly-differentiated tumour?

Answer 17

Tumour composed of cells which bear little resemblance to the cell of origin

Question 18

What is an undifferentiated or anaplastic tumour?

Answer 18

Tumour composed of cells which are so undifferentiated that their cell of origin is unknown

Question 19

What does the suffix -osarcoma mean?

Answer 19

Malignant tumour

Question 20

What does the suffix -oma mean?

Answer 20

Benign tumour

Question 21

What is leiomyoma?

Answer 21

Benign tumour of smooth muscle

Question 22

What is rhabdomyoma?

Answer 22

Benign tumour of striated muscle (skeletal)

Question 23

What is leiomyosarcoma?

Answer 23

Malignant cancer of smooth muscle

Question 24

What is rhabdomyosarcoma?

Answer 24

Malignant cancer of striated muscle (skeletal)

Question 25

What is a teratoma?

Answer 25

Benign tumour of germ cells (all 3 germ layers)

Question 26

What are gliomas?

Answer 26

Benign tumour of glial cells of CNS

Question 27

What is leukemia?

Answer 27

Tumour of haemopoetic cells in bone marrow