Wk 1 Principles of MCC Flashcards
What 2 things does cancer evolve through?
Variance (mutation frequency) and selection
What are oncogenes?
genes whose aberrant expression promotes cancerous growth
What are tumor suppressor genes?
genes whose loss of expression promotes cancerous growth
What 3 pathways are normal oncogenes and tumor suppressors part of?
- those that gather information about a cell’s environment to influence its fate
- govern the rate of proliferation
- maintain genomic stability
What does the gene expression profile of a cell determine?
Its behavior
-identity and capabilities of the cell
-cancer cells rewire norm expression to evolve new behaviors
Why is it helpful to measure the gene expression profile of a cancer cell?
To categorize the cancer and predict effective tx options
What are 5 DNA based methods for dx?
sequencing
PCR
FISH
hybridization
microarrays
What 3 questions are we looking to answer w/ DNA based methods?
- is the gene copy number normal (2 per cell) or is it <2 or 2+ per cell?
- Is the sequence of bases norm or is there a mutation?
- If there is a mutation, what kind? (point mutation, insertion, deletion, duplication, aneuploidy, etc?)
What are 4 RNA based methods?
sequencing
qPCR
hybridization
microarrays
What are 3 questions for RNA methods?
- Is the abundance of RNA or interest norm?
- Does the RNA have norm features/structures?
- Is it in the right location to fxn (ie mRNA in cytoplasm)
What are 3 protein based methods?
IHC
ELISA
western blots
4 questions for protein based methods
- Is the abundance of the pro norm?
- Right size?
- localized to right place?
- functional/enzymatically active?
What is the meaning of clone?
A bunch of descendants that mitotically came from common progenitor
clonal = mitotic inheritance
