Cancer

Question 1

What is cancer?

Answer 1

A broad group of diseases that result in uncontrolled cell division.

Question 2

What is wrong with cancer cells?

Answer 2

-Sometimes, during cell division, a random change (mutation) is made when copying the DNA

-If the mutation occurs in part of DNA that controls cell division, the cell may divide uncontrollably

-The damaged cell does not stay in interphase as normal, ignores checkpoints, and keeps dividing until nutrients are exhausted

Question 3

What is a tumour?

Answer 3

A mass of cells that continue to grow and divide without any obvious function in the body

Question 4

Benign tumour:

Answer 4

a tumour that does not affect surrounding tissues other than by physically crowding them (not cancerous)

Question 5

Malignant tumour:

Answer 5

a tumour that interferes with the functioning of surround cells; a cancerous tumour

Question 6

What is the problem with tumours?

Answer 6

-Tumour cell use up nutrients, but serve no function in the body

-Tumour cells can crowd out or interfere with the functioning of surrounding healthy cells

Question 7

Metastasis

Answer 7

the process of cancer cells breaking away from the original (primary) tumour and establishing another (secondary) tumour elsewhere in the body

Question 8

What causes cancer?

Answer 8

-Causes can be hereditary, environmental, or both

-Hereditary: A genetic link can make it more likely that you will develop a certain type of cancer, but it does not guarantee that you will get cancer

-Environmental factors are difficult to research because if a group of people are exposed to a carcinogen, some will develop cancer and some will not

Question 9

Carcinogen:

Answer 9

-Any environmental factor that causes cancer

-Examples:
-smoking
-Radiation
-Viruses
-Certain chemicals in plastics
-Many organic solvents

Question 10

cancer screening

Answer 10

-Many early stages of cancers have no noticeable symptoms

-checking for cancer even if there are no symptoms

-does not prevent cancer, but it does increase the chance of detecting cancer early enough to successfully treat it

-Genetic screening can check if you have inherited DNA linked to cancer

Question 11

reduce your risk of cancer

Answer 11

-no smoking
-sunscreen
-excersise
-good diet

Question 12

benign

Answer 12

-symmetrical
-even border
-uniform colour
-less than 6 mm

Question 13

malignant

Answer 13

-assymetrical
-ragged border
-uneven colour
-more than 6 mm

Question 14

how is it diagnosed

Answer 14

-lab tests
-imaging procedures (x-ray, CT scan, MRI, Ultrasound, PET)
-biopsy

Question 15

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