Chapter 12: Cancer Flashcards
(74 cards)
What are the ABCs of skin cancer?
Asymmetry - when half of the mole doesn’t match the other half
Border - when the border of the mole is ragged or irregular
Color - when the color of the mole varies throughout
Diameter - if the moles diameter is larger than a pencils eraser
Can dark-skinned people get skin cancer?
Yes. More melanin but still can get skin cancer
What do most strains of HPV cause?
Warts on the body and the body can clear the infection on its own
What is the spread of cancer cells?
Metastasis
What is cancer?
A malignant tumor
What is a thymine dimer?
When T attaches to A next to it instead of across. Result of a tan
What does inheriting one bad copy of BRCA 1 or having a mutation of BRCA 1 cause?
Increased risk for breast cancer bc there is no room for error with the other copy. 60% chance of developing before 50 compared to 2% if both were normal
What have Henrietta Lacks’ cells been used for?
Polio vaccine, cancer, AIDS, gravity, radiation, 11,000 patents, 60,000 papers, and 20 tons of her cells have been used
The 2nd most commonly diagnosed cancer in women
Breast cancer
What leads to mutations of the cells own DNA?
Errors during replication and mitosis and carcinogens
What is Li Fraumeni syndrome?
Inherited mutation of the p53 gene. 50% of people with it develop cancer by age 30 and 90% by age 60
What does the Guardisill vaccine protect against?
HPV 16 and 18 but not the others
What is the number 1 cause of lung cancer?
Smoking
What is the most common cause of skin cancer?
UV radiation
What are the 10 hallmarks of cancer?
- Uncontrolled proliferation (self-sufficient)
- Evasion of growth suppressors (inactivation of tumor suppressors)
- Resistance to apoptosis
- Develop replicative immortality (activate telomerase)
- Induce angiogenesis
- Invasion and metastasis
- Changed energy metabolism (anaerobic)
- Immune system evasion
- Genomic instability
- Inflammation
Confined locally (doesn’t spread), easier to remove
Benign
What is angiogenesis and why is it important in cancer?
Forming new blood vessels. Tumors do it to feed themselves
Invades surrounding tissue, spreads to other parts of the body, often comes back
Malignant
What do mutations cause in a cell?
A pile up until the cell can no longer divide properly (the dividing genes are damaged)
What are the 3 basic types of oncogene activation?
Mutation which changes protein structure, increase in protein concentration, and chromosomal translocation
What types of genes are most often associated with cancer?
Oncogenes and tumor suppressors
Why is immunotherapy better than chemotherapy?
Immunotherapy delivers chemo to the cancer cells through the immune system so it saves more normal cells
Why is lung cancers 5 year survival rate only 18%?
It is often more advanced by the time it is diagnosed
What does the two-hit hypothesis say?
Both copies of the gene must be non-functional
