Year 2 - Cancer Flashcards
What are the 3 cycles of the cell cycles?
Interphase, mitosis and G0 Stationary phase
What way is cancer to be thought to be develop in?
A multi-step process in which multiple mechanisms must fail before a cell becomes cancerous.
What do mutations cause ?
Makes cells divide quicker, allows them to escape controls on cell division, damages DNA repair mechanisms, and allows them to avoid programmed cell death
What is primary cancer?
It is where the cancer starts.
What is secondary cancer?
This is where the primary cancer travels in the bloodstream or lymph and settles and grow in another part of the body
Where do cancer cells have abnoramalities?
In their membranes, cytoskeletal proteins or morphology
What do the type of tumours that form depend on?
The type of cell that was initially altered
What is a carcinoma?
Any type of cancer that starts in cells that makes up the skin or the tissue lining organs
What is an example of a carcinoma?
Squamous cell carcinoma
What is a sarcoma?
Rare cancers that develop in the muscle, bone, nerves, cartilage, tendons, blood vessels and the fatty and fibrous tissues
What is an example of sarcoma?
Osteosarcoma
What is leukaemia?
Any type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow where blood cells are made
What is an example of leukaemia?
Acute myeloid leukaemia
What is lymphoma?
Any type of blood cancer that develops form lymphocytes (a type of white blood cells)
What is an example of lymphoma?
Non Hodgkin and Hodgkin lymphomas
What is melanoma (malignant melanoma)?
Any type of cancer that develops from the pigment-containing cells known as melanocytes
Where do melanomas (malignant melanomas) typically occur?
They typically occur in the skin but they may rarely occur in the moth, intestines or eye
What is an example of a melanoma (malignant melanomas)?
Ocular melanoma
What are the stages of tumour growth?
Hyperplasia, dysplasia, anaplastic phase, metastasis
What happens in hyperplasia?
Cells apple normal, mutations results in loss of control of growth, increase in replication
What happens in dysplasia?
Further growth, abnormal changes to the cells
What happens in anaplastic phase?
Additional changes, cells are more abnormal, can now spread over a wider area of tissue, cells lose their original function, tumour is still contained within its original location and is noninvasive (not yet malignant)
What happens in metastasis?
Cells can invade surrounding tissue, including the bloodstream, spreads to other locations, the tumour is now malignant
What are the six differences between normal and malignant/cancerous cells?
Self-sufficiency in grown signals, insensitivity to growth- inhibitory signals, evasion of programmed cell death, limitless replicative potential, sustained angiogenesis, tissue invasion and metastasis
What is ‘One gene one protein’ hypothesis?
Genes are linear, made of triplets, unambiguous, non overlapping and degenerate
What is linear?
The sequence of nucleotides
What is a triplet code?
The sequence is divided into triplets
What is unambiguous?
Each codon specifies one amino acids only - this set of DNA codons only makes one sequence of amino acids
What is degenerate?
More than one triplet codes for the same amino acid
How many was the estimate of numbers of genes?
It ranges from 19,000 to 100,000 in the human genome (35,000 is the number the exam board takes)
How many cancer genes have been reported?
291 cancer genes
What is point mutations?
A mutations that only affects a single nucleotide of nucleic acid. Point mutations most commonly involve the substitution of one base for another
What is translocation?
A chromosome translocations is a chromosome abnormality caused by rearrangement of parts between non homologous chromosomes
What is amplification?
An increase in the number of copies of a gene (this is common in cancer cells and some amplifies genes may cause cancer cells to grow or become resistant to anticancer drugs)
What is inherited/hereditary mutations?
Inherited from parents - gremlin mutations because they are present in the parent’s egg or siren cells which are also called germ cells
What is environment/acquired mutations?
Occur at some time during a person’s life and are present only in certain cells. These changes can be caused by environmental factors such as ultraviolet radiation from the sun. This cannot be passed to the next generaton
What are the three main types of malfunctioning genes?
proto-oncogenes, tumour suppressors and DNA repair genes
What are two-hit hypothesis?
It implies that both alleles that code for particular proteins must be affected before an effect is seen
How many known human DNA repair genes that monitor chromosomes to correct damage to nucleotides?
130
How is controlled cell growth maintained?
By regularion of photo-oncogenes, which accelerated growth and tumour suppressor genes which slow cell growth
What are proto-oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes work like?
The accelerator and brakes of a car
What are the different treatment options for cancer?
Surgery, Chemotherapy, radiation therapy, combination therapy,
What are the cancers that cannot be treated by surgery?
Leukemias and lymphomas due to them being blood Bourne and will be too widely spread at the time of diagnosis to be treated with surgery
What are the reasons to have surgery?
diagnosis, prevention, curing, controlling, reconstructions
What are biopsies?
To diagnose cancer, a surgeon may remove a small piece of tissue of the abnormal area. If the biopsy contains cancer cells, it can show what type of cancer it is and how slowly or quickly it may grow
What happens in cancer removal surgery?
It removes the tumour and some normal tissue from around it. The surgeons send the tissues to the laboratory, where it is looked at under a microscope. This gives more information about cancer. Then diagnosis decisions happen.
What is chemotherapy?
Cancer treatment where medication is used to kill cancer cells
What does chemotherapy cause the cells to do?
It stops cancer cells reproducing, which prevents them from growing and spreading in the body
What are the common types of chemo?
Given into the vein (done in hospital) or oral (can be done at home with regular check ups
What is neoadjuvant treatment?
Shrinking of a tumour
What is adjuvant treatment?
Killing remaining cancer cells
What can chemotherapy do?
Can help cure cancer, prevent cancer from spreading and relieve symptoms caused by cancer . You may be given 1 or more types fo chemo
What is the most convenient way of chemo?
Oral chemo is more convenient and less invasive treatment option. Can self medicate, after patient education and with regular monitory
What are the advantages of chemo?
Patient convenience, flexibility in timing, flexibility location of administration, flexibility of drug exposure by providing more prolonged therapy compared with intermittent IV exposure
What are the disadvantages of chemo?
Drugs may be needed to be stored in particular ways, and drugs must be stored away from children or other adults they can cause harm to others
What does radiation therapy do?
Kills cancer cells or slows their growth by damaging their DNA. Cancer cells whose DNA is damages beyond repair stop dividing or die. When the damages cells die, they are broken down and removed by the body
How long does the aftermath of radiation therapy take?
Cells can keep dying for weeks or months after radiation therapy ends
What is external beam radiation?
Machine that aims radiation at the centre - only going to the part of the body that the cancer is situated in
What is internal radiation therapy?
Put inside your body either solid or liquid. Solid capsules are places in the Boyd in or near the tumour. Liquid deuces are systemic (treatment travels in the blood to tissues throughout your body)
What is combination therapy?
Use of two or more different drugs at the same time
What is the pros of combination therapy?
Increases the chance that all of the cancer cells will be eliminated
What are the cons of combination therapy?
Increases the risk of drug interactions, and if there is a problem, it may be hard to know which drug was at fault
What does cancer treatments reduce the number of?
Red blood cells in the blood (anaemia).
What happens when you don’t have enough red blood cells?
It reduces the amount of oxygen the body receives, which causes tiredness and breathlessness
What can relieve the symptoms of anaemia and how is this done?
Blood transfusions and this will be through blood being given into the vein and it will increase the number of red blood cells in the body
What can also lead to anaemia?
Some cancers that internal bleeding due to few red blood cells
Where are blood cells made?
They are made in the bone marrow
What happens with cancers that start in the bone marrow or cancers that spread there from other places?
This may crowd out normal blood-making cells, leading to low blood counts
What are targeted cancer therapies?
Are drugs or other substances that block the growth and spread of cancer by interfering with specific molecules that are involves in the growth, progression and spread of cancer
What do targeted therapies do?
They act on specific molecular targets that are associated with cancer, are deliberately chosen or designed to interact with their target, are often cytostatic (they block tumour cell proliferation), and they use information about a person’s genes are proteins to prevent, diagnose and treat disease
What is immunotherapy?
uses the immune system to fight cancer. It works by helping the immune system recognise and attack cancer cells. Can be used on its own or with other cancer treatments.
When might cancer develop?
The immune system recognises cancer cells but it is not strong enough to kill the cancer cells, the cancer cells produce signals that stop the immune system from attacking it, the cancer cells hide or escape from the immune system
What are monoclonal antibodies (MABs)?
They recognise and attach to specific proteins on the surface of cancer cells
What are vaccines to treat cancer?
Vaccines are made to recognise proteins that are on particular cancer cells. This helps the immune system to recognise and mount an attack against those particular cancer cells
What is cytokines?
A group of proteins in the body that play an important part in boosting the immune system (interferon and interleukin are types of cytokines found in the body)
What is adoptive cell transfer?
Changes the genes in person’s white blood cells (T cells) to help them recognise and kill cancer cells. Changing the T cell in this way is called genetically engineering the T cells
What is photodynamic therapy?
Uses a drug, called a photosensitise or photosensitising agents and a particular type of light. When photosensitzers are exposed to specific wavelengths of light, they proceed a form of oxygen that kills nearby cells.
How is photodynamic therapy done?
It is injected into the bloodstream, absorbed by cells, stays in cancer cells longer than in normal cells after 24 to 72 hours after injects, the age has left normal cells, it will remain in cancer cells, the tumour is exposed to light. The photosensitise in the tumour absorbs the light and produces an active form of oxygen that destroys nearby cancer cells.
What does PDT appear to do?
Appears to shrink or destroy tumours in two other ways - the photosensitise can damage blood vessels in the tumour, thereby preventing the cancer from receiving necessary nutrients, it also may activate the immune system to attack the tumour cells
What is patient-reported outcomes (PROs)?
How successful is the treatment
What is health-related quality of life (HRQL) or additional quality-adjusted life years (QUALYs)?
How healthy they are when on the treatment (compared to those not on the treatment; maybe using other treatments)
What is ease of administration and adherence?
How likely are patients to stick with the treatment
What are the impacts of new treatments?
Patient-reported outcomes (PROs), health-related quality of life (HRQL) or additional quality-adjusted life years (QUALYs), ease of administration and adherence, satisfaction with treatment, side effects, cost effectiveness
What is palliative care?
Support for people who are in the last months of years of their life
What do they have the right to express in palliative care?
You have the right to express your wishes about where you would like to receive care, and where you want to die. You can receive end of life care at home, in care homes, hospices or hospitals, depending on your needs and preference
Who will be involved in your end of life care?
Different medical professionals depending on your needs
