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Block 1 Week 4 > Cancer Genetics 1 > Flashcards

Cancer Genetics 1 Flashcards

(56 cards)

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1
Q

What is Cancer?

A
  • the uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells

- has wide range of diseases, can appear in any tissue

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2
Q

Known causes of cancer?

A
  • external factors (lifestyle; smoking alcohol etc)

- internal factors (inherited genetic mutations, hormones, immune conditions)

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3
Q

What are the 4 main cancer types?

A

1) lymphoma
2) carcinoma
3) sarcoma
4) leukemias

All cancers start benign then move into cancerous phase

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4
Q

lymphoma

A

Lymphatic system cancers (excess in lymph nodes, Thymus, and/or Spleen)

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5
Q

carcinoma

A
  • cancer of epithelia
  • benign precursors= adenomas
  • include Breast, Lung, Pancreas
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6
Q

what are sarcomas? 3 common types?

A
  • connective tissue tumors
    1) Muscle : Myosarcomas
    2) Fibroblast: Fibrosarcomas
    3) Cartilage: Chondroma (benign), or Chondrosarcoma (malignant).
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7
Q

Leukemias

A
  • blood cell tumors

- causes too many blood cells

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8
Q

percentage of new cancer diagnoses that are preventable?

A
  • Almost half (42%)
    ex: smoking, excess body weight, physical inactivity, excess alcohol consumption, poor nutrition, viral infections, skin cancer
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9
Q

How does smoking affect risk of lung cancer? What happens do cancer when someone stops smoking?

A
  • Smokers 25x more likely to develop lung cancer than nonsmokers
  • reduce smoking & reduce mortality of most common cancers (lung, colorectal, breast, and prostate)
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10
Q

Cancer and hereditary?

A
  • small proportion of cancers are strongly hereditary
  • combo of inherited predisposiotn & similar lifestyle conditions thought to be responsible for majority of familial cancer
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11
Q

What kinds of cancers make up the most NEW cases?

A

1) Breast 266K
2) Lung 234K
3) Prostate 164K

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12
Q

What kinds of cancers make up the the top DEATHS?

A

1) Lung 153K
2) Colon 50K
3) Breast 41K

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13
Q

What is the clinicians staging system (2 steps)

A

1) TNM (tumor, lymph node, metastasis)
- assesses cancer growth by:
1) Extent of primary tumor
2) Absence/ presence of lymph node involvement
3) absence/presence of distant metastases
2) use TNM to determine stage of 0-IV

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14
Q

stage 0? stage 1? stage IV?

A 
0= in situ
1= being early 
IV= being the most advanced (less probability of controlling cancer when here)
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15
Q

Alternative staging systems and why need them?

A
  • in cases like lymphoma, will not see tumors/ metastasis the way you would in tissue, so hard to use same staging protocol
  • or if want descriptive/ statical analysis of tumors/cancers
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16
Q

what is the staging system for descriptive & statistical analysis of tumor registry data?

A

1) cancer cells present only in layers of cells where they developed & have not spread= in situ
2) if cancer cells have penetrated beyond original layer of tissue it is invasive; described as LOCAL, REGIONAL, DISTANT depending on extent of the spread

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17
Q

Edward smith?

A

-fairly accurate writings of breast cancer from Egyptians
seen 3500 years ago on his papyrus
- describes bulging tumors of the breast that has no cure.

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18
Q

Hippocrates & cancer?

A

-in 460BC
-named tumors resembling a crab “Karkinos”
(word “cancer” is derived via Latin),
-suggested Breast Cancer was caused by “Black Bile”…

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19
Q

Paracelsus and cancer?

A
  • suggested (1567 ) that a gas in mined ore (radon) caused a wasting disease in miners
  • first time IDed lifestyle as a risk for cancer
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20
Q

John Hilland cancer?

A

-made the first direct link of cancer to chemical substances -noted that excessive use ofsnuffmay cause nasal cancer

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21
Q

SirPercivall Pott and cancer?

A

wrote a paper on the high incidence of scrotal cancer inchimney sweeps

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22
Q

How does cancer arise?

A
  • an altered balance in homeostasis of apoptosis and cell division
  • normal cell division & apoptosis= homeostasis
  • increased cell division, normal apoptosis= tumor
  • normal cell division, decreased apoptosis= tumor
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23
Q

What happens when apoptosis & cell replication homeostasis is interrupted?

Study These Flashcards
A
  • uncontrolled cellular growth
  • unhealthy cells outcompete healthy cells
  • destroys correct functioning of major organs & tissues
  • by increasing the # of cells but not the space available to them; can change shape, gene expression,cell-cell connections & reduced supply of nutrients
24
Q

generally speaking how do tumors arise?

Study These Flashcards
A
  • arise from normal tissues

- created by cells that have lost ability to assemble & create tissues of normal form/function

25
Three classifications of tumors?
-benign or malignant
26
benign mean?
-grown locally w/o invading adjacent tissues
27
malignant mean?
-invade nearby tissues & spawn metastases
28
How does cancer transform from benign to malignant?
- Malignant transformation is multistep process | - cancer cells need to adopt a lot of abnormal characteristics.
29
What does it mean when say cancer is "multifactorial"?
-means is influenced by both genotype and environment
30
what is personalized medicine?
- when ID specifc mutations in certain cancer & address only those changes - if can remove/ fix the change then can prevent cancer growth
31
10 hallmarks of cancer?
1) Evading apoptosis 2) Self-sufficiency in Growth signals 3) Insensitivity to anti-growth signals 4) Sustained angiogenesis 5) Tissue invasion & metastasis 6) Limitless replicative potential 7)Genome instability and mutation 8) Tumor-promoting inflammation 9) Deregulating Cellular energetics 10) Avoiding immune destruction
32
What usually causes the disregulation of homeostasis in cancer cells?
1) cancer caused by somatic mutations in genes that regulate cell proliferation, programmed cell death, & genome stability 2) a predisposition for cancer can be inherited via germline transmission of mutant genes
33
describe typical cancer progression?
-cancer is a sequential, progressive disease, requires a small # of mutations over an extended period of time to become malignant
34
Steps of cancer progression from benign to malignant
1) first clonal expansion: an initiating mutation that increases cell proliferation occurs in the first cell 2) this cell replicates and passes it's mutation to all progeny 3) one of it's progeny obtain a second mutation...spreads M1 + M2 to all progeny 4) progeny w/ M1+ M2 obtains M3...gives all 3 to progeny now have a cancer cell
35
Is clonal expansion have to contain heterogenous cells?
- NO - can have cells that contain 2 or 3 different mutation events - the 2, 3, and 4 mutations and subsequent clonal expansion can also happen simultaneously
36
cancer is caused by a combination of what?
1) hereditary factors | 2) environmental factors
37
what are the hereditary factors that cause cancer?
-germline transmission of mutations that predispose people to develop cancer
38
what are the environmental factors that cause cancer?
- exposure to env carcinogens that increase frequency of somatic mutations - ex: smoking, diet, lifestyle
39
What are 3 types of highly hereditary cancers?
1) prostate 2) colorectal 3) breast cancer - still hereditary factors account for <50% - may seem MORE hereditary since families usually share same env as well
40
carcinogens vs mutagens?
- Carcinogens almost always modify DNA - Mutagens (mutation causing agents) ALWAYS modify DNA - both can lead to cell damage & loss of homeostatic control on apoptosis vs cell replication
41
What is a carcinogenic assay? Positive & negatives?
- treat animals w/ different doses of potential carcinogen - wait for tumor to appear - take forever, but effective
42
Mutagen assay?
-Ames Test (Bruce Ames) Step 1: Mutant Bacteria lacking histidine was plated on media w/ and w/o histidine. Appeared on media lacking histidine when suspected Mutagen was added -mutagen altered the DNA, allowed it to replicate even in absence of histidine
43
What happened in Ames test when tested all suspected chemical mutagens A-Z? Why? (suspected cuz showed mutagenic properties in rats)
- only X,Y,Z showed mutagenic activity - realzied the rest of the mutagens were being altered by liver metabolism into their mutagenic form. But the chemicals themselves were only CARCINOGENIC
44
Modified Ames test?
- used liver extract to allow metabolic modification of carcinogen from pro-mutagen into mutagen - some agents that failed previous Ames test were positive for mutagen promoting characteristics when in presence of liver metabolic enzymes
45
Evading apoptosis | hallmark?
-negative effects on apoptosis -cells stop recognizng signals that cause apoptosis so cells don't die & accumulate
46
Self-sufficiency in growth signals hallmark?
-cells don't require external growth factors from blood for proliferation, can initiate proliferation on own
47
Insensitivity to anti-growth signals hallmark?
-loose signal that says to stop replicating so engages in continuous proliferation
48
Sustained angiogenesis hallmark?
- cancer cells recruit blood supply, to satisfy increased resource requirements - can instigate growth of vascularization
49
Tissue invasion & metastasis hallmark?
-cancer cells able to leave original place and invade another tissue
50
Limitless replicative potential hallmark?
- cells have time clock that says how many times can divide b4 death (based on tissue location & organism) - cancer cells ignore signals; can become immortal cells
51
What happens if remove the antigen causes limitless replicative potential?
- the cell will remember what number replication it was on when it began it's continuous proliferation - will return to that # division once antigen removed
52
Genome instability and mutation hallmark?
-an enabling characteristic; effects all other hallmarks, can cause them to occur
53
Tumor-promoting Inflammation hallmark?
- outgrowth from uncontrolled cell division is recognized - generates friction & lack of resources, which alters normal cell env & leads to inflammation - is an enabling characteristic cuz can cause more cell damages and cause other hallmarks to occur
54
Deregulating cellular energetics hallmark?
- too many cells growing in 1 spot, have to split resources (energy, aa etc); - causes growing cells to experience abnormal energy levels, leads to more ROS
55
Avoiding immune system destruction hallmark?
- usually when have uncontrolled growth of cells, immune system ID & removes them - in cancer; immune system fails
56
How treat cancer if immune system is failing at catching & disposing of cancerous cells?
-take out T cells, modfiy receptors in vitro, allows immune system to recognize cancer cells (personalized medicine)

Block 1 Week 4 (7 decks)

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