w/c 20-Jan-14 Flashcards
Treatment option for local therapy of a tumour that cannot be resected.
Radiotherapy.
Also used for pain control (bone cancer/ bone mets)
How does radiotherapy work?
Ionising radiation. 1. Direct damage 2. Indirect Damage
How does radiotherapy cause indirect damage?
Free radicals- more efficient than direct damage. Heats and therefore damages DNA
The use of radiation is the Gray. How many Grays are required to cause cell death?
10 Grays: Intermitotic death
Tissues with high proliferative rate express radiation damage relatively quickly
Which is more efficient at repair; tumour cells or normal body cells?
Normal body cells are better at repair than tumour cells.
This helps therapeutically.
What is the significance of Fractionation?
Total dose of radiation used to treat a tumour is divided into a number of fractions
- Spares normal tissues, allows repair and repop
How does Fractionation lead to increased tissue damage? (2 things)
Fractionation increases damage to tumour because of REOXYGENATION of cells and REDISTRIBUTION of cells into radiosensitive phases of cell cycle
What are the 4 ‘R’s of Radiation therapy?
Which ONE is a negative effect?
- Repair (tumour cells less able to repair DNA damage)
- Repopulation (negative effect)
- Reoxygenation
- Redistribution
What are the general principles of Reoxygenation?
Tumours often have a necrotic centre. A single dose of RT would kill of healthy oxygenated tumour cells but may not affect the hypoxic cells.
Death of vascularised cells will make room for SURVIVING HYPOXIC CELLS. (Then next fraction kills these)
Which stage of the cell cycle is most suspectible to Radiotherapy? What is the significance of this?
Significance: Redistribution (therefore Fractionation)
Most sensitive to Least sensitive
M>G2>G1>ES>LS
i.e. LATE S PHASE = MOST RESISTANT
Which particles are used in the linear accelerator?
Strontium-90
Iridium-192
Linerar accelerator higher technical maintenance but higher accuracy c.f. Cobalt-60 unit
Differences between electron beam and photon beam? (Penetration ability)
ELECTRON BEAM Various energies possible
Rapid dose reduction. Penetration 1.5-5.6cm, single fields
PHOTON BEAM: High penetration. Slow dose reduction, CT-based planning!
One use of radiation therapy is curative/ definitive. What is the other goal of RT?
Palliative i.e. pain reduction in osteosarcoma/ bone mets
When might RT be used as a post SX adjuvant TX?
MCT, Soft tissue sarcoma, Feline vaccine-associated sarcoma
When might RT be used as a primary TX?
Brain tumour, tumour of head and neck, MCT.
2/3 Nasal tumours= carcinomas
Prognosis of squamous Cell Carcinoma in dogs?
and in cats?
MIddle ages dogs, prognosis is SITE DEPENDENT. Rostral: local control-->cure Tonsillar < 10% survival after 1 yr IN CATS = V.V AGGRESIVE Cauliflower shaped
Which type of biopsy should be taken for diagnosis of feline ISS
Feline injection site sarcoma: mesenchymal.
ALWAYS INCISIONAL BIOPSY.
The have to do radiotherapy after otherwise reoccurance
Adverse effects of RT Tx may not be apparent until the irradiated cells attempt ____
Mitosis.
Acute effect will resolve (rapidly dividing tissue)
Late effects (>6MNTS) can be permanent (slowly dividing tissue i.e. brain, bone, muscle, retina, CNS)
When do the acute side effects peak in RT Tx?
After the third week of radiation.
8-10 DAYS
Normal tissue reactions: inflamm of MM, dermatitis, keratitis, conjuctivitis, CNS.
Dermatitis: target cells: Stratum Basale (also alopecia)
Anorexia as a side effect to RT Tx is common in what species?
Cats (parenteral feeding?)
Treatment of RT Tx side-effects of brain demyelination
Corticosteroids
Where should the biopsy site be to avoid compromising subsequent treatment?
Biopsy site should lie within likely surgical field so biopsy site may be excised with the tumour
What direction of incisional should be made for biopsies on limbs? why?
Longitudinal incision when on tails of limbs. Since these incisions are easier to resect during future surgical procedures
In what type of tumour might pre-malignant change be an indication for prophalactic surgery?
Dermatitis on ear/nose tips. Pre-malignant change for squamous cell carcinoma.
Also gonadectomy is prophalactic
The most active part of the tumour is normally situated at__
Normally situated at the periphery, incomplete excision leaves the most aggressive cells behind
When is lavaging the surgical site, with buffered saline indicated?
Only when contaminated e.g. perforation of a viscus. NEVER to remove seeded tumour cells (cell specific binding!)
Why are vascular occlusion techniques especially important when excising a Sarcoma?
Sarcomas metastasis by haematogenous spread (c.f. carcinomas= lymphatics).
Ligation of venous/lymphatic drainage should be performed before ligation of arterial supply
Which type of tumour are normally removed by radical local excision?
Sarcomas.
Tumour removed together with margins that extend into adjacent facial planes which are undisturbed by tumour growth. Tumours that result in the formation of a pseudocapsule
What is local excision? Example of a tumour where this would be indicated?
Tumour is removed through its natural capsule, immediate boundaries or with the minimum of adjacent tissues
e.g. lipoma, histeocytoma (benign with no tendency for local infiltration)
Define heart failure
Inability of the heart to maintain a normal cardiac output at normal filling pressures
5 potential causes of heart failure
- Pump failure (Systolic failure)
- Volume overload
- Pressure overload
- Arrhythmias
- Diastolic failure
Potential causes of volume overload (in cardiology)
Chronic increase in amount of blood that must be pumped by a given cardiac chamber.
Due to either shunting of blood (VSD, PDA), regurgitation of blood (mitral insufficiency), aneaemia or increase metabolic demand
Which of the 5 potential causes of heart failure would aortic/pulmonary thrombosis be most likely to cause?
Pressure overload due to systemic or pulmonary hypertension (increase resistance)
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is an example of which of the 5 types of heart failure
Diastolic failure (impaired ventricular filling) c.f. dilated cardiomyopathy= failure of contraction= pump/systolic failure