14. Incidence, Prognosis And Treatment Neoplasms Flashcards
(36 cards)
Have 4 cancers account for over half of all cancers in the UK?
Breast, lung, prostate and bowel carcinomas
What 3 cancers are most common in children younger than 14?
Leukaemias, central nervous system tumours and lymphomas
Which 3 cancers have the best 3 year survival rates?
Testicular cancer, melanoma, breast cancer
Which 3 cancers have the worst 5 year survival rates?
Pancreatic cancer, lungs oesophageal cancers.
What is taken into consideration when trying to determine which individuals will have a favourable outcome for malignant neoplasms?
Age, general health status, tumour site, tumour type, stage, grade, availability of effective treatments.
In the TNM staging system what does the T refer to?
Size of the primary tumour
In the TNM staging system what does the N refer to?
Extent of regional node metastasis
In the TNM staging system what does the M refer to?
Extent of distant metastatic spread
How are cancers staged?
TNM staging is converted into a stage from I to IV, going from stage I being early local disease (T1/2), to stage IV being advanced disease with distant metastasis (any T, N and M1)
What is the Ann Arbor staging?
System for staging lymphoma. Goes from stage I being lymphoma in a single node region, to stage IV indicating diffuse or disseminated involvement of one or more extra-lymphatic organs such as bone marrow or lung.
What is the Duke’s staging?
Staging used for colorectal carcinoma, with Duke’s A being invasion but not through the bowel, and Duke’s D being distant metastases. TNM is still preferred worldwide however.
What does grading refer to?
How well/poorly differentiated a neoplasm is.
What cancers is grading used for?
Squamous cell carcinoma and colorectal carcinoma.
What grading system is used for breast carcinomas and what does this assess?
Bloom-Richardson,
Tubule formation, nuclear variation, number of mitoses.
What malignancies is tumour grade more important for planning treatment and estimating prognosis?
Soft tissue sarcoma, primary brain tumours, lymphomas, breast and prostate cancer.
What are the main methods for cancer treatment?
Surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and treatment targeted to specific molecular alterations. Also immune therapy is promising for the future.
What is adjuvant treatment?
Given after surgical removal of a primary tumour to eliminate a subclinical disease.
What is a neoadjuvant treatment?
Given to reduce the size of a primary tumour prior to surgical excision
How is radiotherapy focused on the tumour?
With shielding of surrounding healthy tissue
In what doses is radiotherapy given? And why?
Fractionated doses as this minimises normal tissue damage.
What radiation type is used in radiotherapy for malignant neoplasm treatment?
X-rays and other types of ionising radiation.
How does radiation work in treating malignant neoplasms?
Radiation kills rapidly dividing cells, especially those in G2 of the cell cycle as high dosage causes direct or free-radical induced DNA damage that is detected by the cell cycle check-points, triggering apoptosis. Dole-stranded DNA breakages cause damaged chromosomes that prevent M phase from completing correctly.
What do the group of chemotherapy drugs, antimetabolites, do?
Mimic normal substates involved in DNA replication.
What do the group of chemotherapy drugs, alkylating and platinum-based drugs, do?
Cross-link the two strands of the DNA helix.
