Cancer

Question 1

What is cancer?

Answer 1

An uncontrolled growth of cells - tumour

Question 2

what are 2 kinds of hyper-proliferated lesions, explain them

Answer 2

1. benign: cyst/wart, not life threatening in north America
2. malignant: grow with no control, has an irregular shape, were most worried about these

Question 3

What is the number 1 cause of death in Canada

Answer 3

Cancer

Question 4

Why are males more likely to die from cancer than women? What year was it most similar for genders?

Answer 4

they are more stupid!

They die from mostly lung cancer, they smoke more an average compared to women

1930’s

Question 5

what are 3 types of cancer treatments?

Answer 5

chemo, radiation, surgery

very unpleasant!

Question 6

Has the death rate for cancer decreased at all since the past?

Answer 6

No. we are not successful at treating cancer much better for other diseases

Question 7

what are the cancers that have decreased in men and women overtime?

Answer 7

men: stomach,
women: uterine, stomach

Question 8

explain Cell Division for normal cells

Answer 8

it is regulated
has a cap for 5 divisions
divide only on demand
the cells must touch similar cells (tissue)

Question 9

explain Cell division for Cancer cells

Answer 9

uncontrolled
divide as many times (50+)
they can move around (mobile)

Question 10

Why are cancer cells useful to study in labs?

Answer 10

They are immortal, can keep them if removed from a person,

Question 11

What is an example of cells we still use today in research - Henrietta Lacks

Answer 11

HeLa Cells
- cervical cancer cell (tumour was removed and kept growing in a lab
they are still used today - her cells out lived her

Question 12

how many years does it require for cancer to develop? and why does it take long?

Answer 12

20 years
it requires 8-10 mutations in the same cell, and our body protects against mutations

Question 13

What is a cell mutation? and biological regulation

Answer 13

it is a loss of function of a cell - proteins stop working properly
the only way to treat it is by killing it… but the cancer is YOU

biological regulation is the way our bodies balance for survival - controlled by activation (ON) and suppression (OFF) pathways at the same time

Question 14

What is the accelerator and breaks in cell division regulation?

Answer 14

the stimulation says “time to divide” and the repression says: don’t divide”

Question 15

What happens to the accelerator and breaks with cancer?

Answer 15

The brakes are broken and the gas pedal is on the floor

Question 16

what is the role of RAS?

Answer 16

It is a common ON/OFF switch for cell division and is stuck on “ON” for 30% of tumous

Question 17

What is p53?

Answer 17

A breaking protein - it doesn’t work in 50% of tumors and there is A LOT of trouble if it’s broken.

Question 18

What is Apoptosis and what happens to it when the p53 doesn’t work

Answer 18

It is a programmed cell death to protect against tumor formation ex: wound healing. IF the p53 is broken then apoptosis doesn’t work

Question 19

What happens when cells hit 50 divisions, but cancer interferes?

Answer 19

The cells die after 50 divisions and the tips get cut off… but cancer regrows these tips as a malfunctioned cell

Question 20

What is the gene’s role in making proteins? what happens with mutation?

Answer 20

it is an instruction to make proteins with codons (amino acids) and string them together = protein.

mutation= type in the gene = wrong shape of protein
protooncogenes = oncogenes

some people may be more susceptible depending on their sequence - behaviour + body type

Question 21

explain alcohol’s role in cancer

Answer 21

acetaldehyde = carcinogenic
ex: 2 people-
1- has equal amounts of enzymes
2- has a small amount of the second enzyme -> gets more acetaldehyde
- but they can also be at a lower risk cause these people don’t tend to drink often

Question 22

Tobacco’s role in cancer

Answer 22

4800 chemicals, 400 toxic, 40 corcinogenic
causes cancer by burning toxic chemicals (ex: polonium 210)

This comes from fertilizers - uranium

alpha emitter - safe on the outside of the body: plastic brushed, spark plugs, toy in kix cereal

heat burns the polonium and turns it to vapor, when it’s inhaled the body temp cools it back down into metal form that welds into place in the lungs

Question 23

Benzopyrenecarcinogenicity

Answer 23

combustion of byproducts = dangerous and react chemically with DNA - changes its structure

Question 24

why did women smoke later than men?

Answer 24

They created advertizements to reach the larger audience (1970’s)

Question 25

Diet/Obesity
- food

Answer 25

we cook for safety + flavour - controlled burning

meet darkens as you cook it (combustion) - creates materials that affect our DNA

Fruits and veggies activate pathways for bad materials which is more safe
FIBER: promotes passage of waste and not the absorbant of dangerous substances

Added weight means organs are too small for the body
- we eat way more processed foods now (fat, sugar, starch)
- we eat BIGGER portions, more than we need

Question 26

Viruses

Answer 26

15%

Question 27

What’s the #1 cancer in Canada?

Answer 27

skin cancer, exposure to UV light

Question 28

Environmental exposure

Answer 28

artificial:
- pesticides, preservatives
- small % of risk
- less risk but exposed to them more

natural:
- more carcinogenic
- but we get exposed to them in smaller quantities

Question 29

Aflatoxin and Phorbol

Answer 29

1. mold that grows on peanuts
2. a plant, extremely dangerous, bad skin lesions by touching it, used to cause cancer in a lab… study rats

Question 30

Why is cacer difficult to target?

Answer 30

Selectivity - drugs don’t know the difference between a normal and cancerous cell

Question 31

Why are drugs created to operate on cell division?

Answer 31

because we know cancer cells grow fast so we can create drugs to target fast cells first
- a poison that kills cancer faster than the patient

Question 32

will cancer drugs have side effects?

Answer 32

100% of the time

Question 33

The first cancer drug ever: Mustard Gas

Answer 33

• used as a chemical weapon during the war
• destroys tissue, blistering

transported on a ship that sank and killed many but the survivors demonstrated something interesting - they has fewer white blood cells - leukemia has more WBC - so was this a cure?

Question 34

Most common cancer drug:

Answer 34

investigating the effect of electric fields on bacteria
- found that when you zap bacteria, some cells stop dividing
- found that it was die to the platinum electrode they were using - very corrosion-resistant but it actually generated a chemical called pyrones salt (cisplatin) which reacts with DNA and stops fast growing cells from dividing and was succeccful on tumors

Question 35

Interetsing drug:
Yew bark story - Taxol

Answer 35

wanted to search for poisons in nature - cause of penicillin
Yew bark caused cancer
- taxol the active substance was toxic - and effective for curing breast cancer
impossible to make the synthetic version of it
and Yew trees you needed 13,000 for 1kg so would need 360,000 trees/ year

Question 36

Taxus Baccata= Europeen Yew

Answer 36

not in the bark but in the leaves
- synthesized to make the drug they wanted
- Rober Holton from FSU created the idea of semi-synthesis

taxol is now manufactured using cell structure and genetic modification