First 3 pillars of Cancer Management

Question 1

What is brachytherapy?

Answer 1

Internal radiotherapy where threads, seeds or capsules containing radiation sources are placed within the body

Question 2

What is oncogene addiction?

Answer 2

Dependency of certain tumour cells on a single activated oncogenic protein or pathway to maintain malignant properties

Question 3

What is the cause of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML)?

Answer 3

Philadelphia chromosome

Question 4

What is the difference between chemotherapy and targetted therapy?

Answer 4

Chemotherapy targets the capacity to replicate DNA that all cells have. Targetted therapies target a specific oncogene- less side effects

Question 5

What class of cytotoxics can be used to treat paediatric leukaemia and lymphomas?

Answer 5

Antimetabolites, aminopterin- Antagonist of folate metabolism, inhibits the formation of tetrahydrofolate. DNA and RNA synthesis inhibitor

Question 6

What does paclitaxel do?

Answer 6

Blocks the breakdown of microtubules

Question 7

What is the mechanism of action of Cis-platin?

Answer 7

Generates covalent cross links within DNA and intra-strand crosslinks