Biology of Cancer

For Professor Burg's BIMM 138 class (if term is bolded or underlined, KNOW FOR EXAM)

Common Cancer Types

• Most common cancer types

  • Male: Prostate

  • Female: Breast

  • Lung/Bronchus, Colorectal

Common Cancer Deaths

• Likely to die from lung/bronchus (20% men, 21% women)

  • 85-90% of lung cancer deaths attributed to tobacco

• Then prostate, breast

Decreasing Cancer Deaths

• Decreasing..

  • Lung cancer deaths due to lower cigarette use

  • Colorectal, Breast, Prostate due to more screening methods

Metastasis

• Leads to 95% of cancer-related deaths

• Up to 70% diagnosed have metastasized cancer

What % of the budget has been spent on cancer (pre-Trump)?

0.1%! (and growing smaller…)

How to Treat Cancer?

• Overview:

  • Genomics

  • Proteomics

  • Pharmacogenetics

    • New proteomics (proteins) and genomics (DNA) arrays can distinguish between cancer securities and predict the most effective treatments

Cancer Classification

• Prefix: What organ the cancer is in

• Suffix: Type of cancer (tissue/cells affected)

Adeno-

Gland

Chrondro-

Cartilage

Erythro-

Red blood cells

Hepato-

Liver

Osteo-

Bone

Myo-

Muscle

Carcinoma

• Epithelial cells lining body cavities, glands, and skin (Most common cancer!!)

  • Adenoma: Benign Glandular Growth

  • Adenocarcinoma: Malignant, derived from cells lining secretory cells

-Sarcoma

Connective tissues

Leukemias

Circulating malignancies

Grading Cancers | Mitotic Rate

How many and how fast cells are dividing (increased mitotic rate = worse grade)

Grading Cancers | Nuclear Grade

Abnormal nuclei = Worse grade

Grading Cancers | Cellular Differentiation

Loss of cell specialization = Worse grade

Grading Cancers | Surgical Margins

• How close are tumor cells to surgical edge

  • Positive = Cells at edge = Worse prognosis

TNM Staging

• Primary Tumor

• Absence/Presence of regional lymph Nodes

• Absence/Presence of Distant Metastasis

TNM Staging Classification

• Stage 1: Localized (will have T#N0M0 grading)

• Stage 2: Regional Spread (will have T#N#M0 grading)

• Stage 3: Distant Metastasis (will have T#N#M# grading)

  • # denotes any number greater than 0

  • See following table