TumourPath Flashcards
Type of tumour
- Benign
- Malignant. Ability to invade into adjacent tissue and to metastasise and and grow at other sites within body
Nomenclature of epithelium tumours
- Glandular:
Benign: adenoma and malignant: adeno-carcinoma - Squamous:
Benign: squamous papilloma and malignant: squamous carcinoma
Nomenclature of connective tissue tumours
- Bone
Benign: osteoma, malignant: osteo-sarcoma - Fat
Benign: lipoma, malignant: lipo-sarcoma
Nomenclature of blood tumours
- cells, not vessels
- Malignant: white blood cells, leukaemia
Nomenclature of lymphoid tissue tumours
Malignant: lymphoma
Nomenclature of neural tissue tumours
- Central nervous system: astrocytoma
- Peripheral nervous system: Schwannoma
Nomenclature of germ cell tumours
- Teratomas:
Tumour composed of various tissues - Ovarian, benign
- Testicular, malignant
Main features of benign tumours
- Non-invasive growth pattern
- Usually encapsulated
- No evidence of invasion
- No mets
- Cells similar to normal
- Tumours ‘well differentiated’
- Function similar to normal tissue
- Rarely cause death
Main features of malignant tumours
- Invasive growth pattern
- No capsule or capsule breached by tumour cells
- Cells abnormal
- Cancer are often poorly differentiated, don’t look anything like cells around it
- Loss of normal function
- Evidence of spread of cancer
- Can cause death
Properties of cancer cells
- Altered genetics
- Altered cellular function (tumour related proteins and loss of function)
- Abnormal morphology
- Cells capable of independent growth
Altered genetics of cancer cells
- Loss of tumour suppressor genes
- Gain of function of oncogenes
What can tumour biomarkers be used for?
You can pick up tumour-related proteins and used these for screening, diagnosis, prognosis and predictive (using a particular therapy)
Onco-fetal proteins examples
- Alpha-fetoprotein: teratoma of testis, hepatocellular carcinoma
Oncogenes
- Kras: colorectal cancer. (know for treatment type)
- Braf: melanoma
Growth factors and receptors and what cancer they’re related to
- Oestrogen receptor - predictive biomarker: breast cancer
- Prostate specific antigen: prostate cancer
- EGFR: lung cancer
- Her2 (EGFR related protein): Breast cancer and gastric cancer
Loss of cellular function in cancer cells
- Loss of cell-to-cell adhesion
- Altered cell-to-matric adhesion
Abnormal morphology
- Balance between cell growth and cell death
- Angiogenesis vs. apoptosis
- Angiogenesis is a route for release of tumour cells into circulation
- Apoptosis regulates cell growth
Angiogenesis is in favour in cancer
Types of cancer spread
- Local
- Lymphatic
- Blood spread
- Transcoelomic spread (thorax and abdo)
Local spread of cancer
- Malignant tumour spreads locallt and ends up in lymph or blood vessels
Lymphatic spread of cancer
- Tumour cells adhere to lymph vessels and invade the lymphatics
- Mets in lymph node, divide and grow
- This is when it becomes clinically evident
Blood spread of cancer
- Same concept as lymphatic
- Invade blood vessels, invade the tissue
- Metastasise, can line vascular endothelium if it is conducive to growth
Trans-coelomic spread
- Spread in body cavities, special form of local invasion
What influences where they metastasise to?
- blood flood
- tumour related factors
- host factors
Common sites of metastasis
- Liver (CRC)
- Lung
- Brain
- Bone: axial skeleton (breast, prostate)
- Adrenal gland
