DD1

What is cancer the result of?

when mechanisms in cells that regulate division lose control

Describe a sarcoma?

• Tendons

• Muscles

Describe a carcinoma?

epithelial

Describe an adenocarcinoma?

Glands

Describe leukaemia?

Bone derived usually blood

What are the two aspect to causes of cancer?

Genetics and epigenetics

Why are humans so susceptible to cancer?

Hypermutable

What is the affect of epigenetics?

Will always be affecting the genetic make up of an individual, regulation of control of the genes being expressed, histones

Describe the function of histones?

Positively charged proteins mutation can affect histones or their relationship with the DNA

What are the main type of epigenetic therapies available?

Methyltransferase, changing interactions with cancer

Dehydrogenases

Deacetylases

What is the theory behind epigenetic therapies?

Treating the drivers that are keeping the cancer i.e the epigenetic modifications

Why are rare cancer not treated very often?

Can’t pull the patient into a population and only anecdotal information drives therapy algorithms, need for personalised medicine

What is the only cure for cancer?

early stage surgical removal

What is the problem with surgical removal of cancers?

Tissue has to heal after surgery, there for growth factors may be able to drive any remaining cancer cells

Why may some patients have a knock down event before surgery?

to limit the activity of the cancer (chemo)

Describe cytokeratin data?

Little proteins found all over the body, profile cells in the body, can be used to work out where the cancer originated from

What are most cancer deaths caused by?

metastatic burden

Which cancer sites can cause death?

Brain and circulatory sites

What can define the metastatic outcome of some cancers?

due to the embryological origin

How does embryological origin affect metastasis?

Cells have an addressing system on them, they can traffic up and down these system in the anterograde/reterograde fashion retrograde

Why are children more prone to cancer

Growing fast increases the likelihood of a defects, cancer types shifts over tiem depending on active cells

Describe a tumour?

5-10% cancer cells, rest are normal cells used to make the environment stable for the cancer, for extra O2, blood nutrients

How can you detect cancer in the blood?

detect this conversation between cancer cells trying to recruit normal cells in the blood

Describe bad genetics?

Somatic defects, epigenetic changes

Describe virus affect on cancer?

Transposable elements,

Proto-oncogenes

Why do children tend to get cancers?

Bad luck genetics

Why can cancer drugs have multiple cancer indication?

due to it targeting the driver of the cancers