Detecting Cancer Review

Flashcards covering key concepts related to cancer detection, treatment, and gene expression.

Cancer

A disease characterized by uncontrolled cell division affecting any tissue or organ.

Proto-oncogenes

Genes that normally control cell division but can lead to cancer when mutated or overexpressed.

Tumor-Suppressor Genes

Genes that normally inhibit cell division; their mutation can lead to cancer due to loss of function.

p53 gene

A tumor-suppressor gene that halts the cell cycle and activates DNA repair enzymes.

Metastasis

The spread of cancer cells to other areas of the body.

Angiogenesis

The formation of new blood vessels that supply nutrients to tumors.

mRNA

Messenger RNA; a type of RNA that conveys genetic information from DNA to the ribosome for protein synthesis.

cDNA

Complementary DNA synthesized from an mRNA template; used in DNA microarray technology.

DNA microarrays

Tools used to measure the expression levels of multiple genes simultaneously.

Up-regulation

An increase in the expression of a gene.

Down-regulation

A decrease in the expression of a gene.

Pearson correlation coefficient

A statistic that measures the strength of a linear relationship between two variables.

Hierarchical clustering

A method of grouping similar genes or gene profiles into clusters based on their similarity.

Log base 2 ratio

A measure used to compare the expression levels of genes in cancer cells versus normal cells.

Morphological changes

Alterations in the structure or shape of cancer cells compared to normal cells.

Contact inhibition

A natural limit on cell growth that cancer cells typically do not exhibit.