Cancer Biology and Pathophysiology Flashcards

Which hallmark of cancer involves the tumor's ability to grow its own blood supply?

Answer: Sustained angiogenesis

Sustained angiogenesis is a hallmark of cancer in which tumors secrete VEGF and other factors to grow new blood vessels that supply nutrients and oxygen.

A proto-oncogene becomes an oncogene through which process?

Answer: Mutation, amplification, or translocation that causes gain-of-function overactivation

Proto-oncogenes become oncogenes when mutations, amplifications, or chromosomal translocations cause the gene product to become constitutively active.

Which mechanism explains why cancer cells continue to divide without responding to normal growth-stop signals?

Answer: Insensitivity to antigrowth signals (dysregulation of tumor suppressor pathways)

Loss of tumor suppressor gene function (e.g., RB, p53) removes the normal brake on cell division, allowing cancer cells to ignore antigrowth signals.

The Warburg effect in cancer cells refers to which metabolic phenomenon?

Answer: Preferential use of aerobic glycolysis even in the presence of oxygen

The Warburg effect describes how cancer cells preferentially use glycolysis (even with oxygen present) to meet their high energy and biosynthetic demands.

Metastasis occurs through which sequence of events?

Answer: Local invasion → intravasation → circulation → extravasation → colonization

The metastatic cascade involves invasion of local tissue, entry into blood/lymphatics (intravasation), survival in circulation, exit (extravasation), and growth at a distant site.

Which type of gene mutation is found in the germline and can be inherited by offspring?

Answer: Germline mutation (hereditary)

Germline mutations are present in all cells of the body from birth and can be passed to children, as seen with BRCA1/2 and Lynch syndrome mutations.