BMS314 Lecture 28: Week 12 Lecture 28 - How does Neoplasia Cause Disease
How does neoplasia cause disease?
• Clinical aspects of neoplasia
• Morbidity: illness
• Mortality: death
• There are a number of different ways neoplasms cause morbidity and mortality
Neoplasms can directly and indirectly affect the body through several mechanisms. It is
important to understand these mechanisms in order to full understand the spectrum of
cancer and its influence over the body. As we discussed previously, neoplasms despite
their benign or malignant nature can directly affect the body.
It is really important to understand that local and hormonal effects can occur with both
with benign and malignant tumours.
Paraneoplastic syndromes and cancer cachexia are much more common in malignant
neoplasms but rarely occur in benign tumours.
• Which tissues are affected by neoplasia?
o Tumours can causes disease in the tissue it originates from as well the
tissues it spreads to
• Known as metastasis
o Not always going to affect only one organ
• Top image
o Some neoplasms can cause ulceration
• This results in haemorrhage (you could become anaemic)
• Painful
• Bottom Left Image
o Kidney
• Bottom Middle Image
o Liver
• Bottom Right Image
o Lungs
When we think about the clinical consequences of neoplasia, it is extremely important
to always remember that neoplasms can have clinical effects not only on the tissue
from which they originate, but if they are malignant and metastasise then they will also
affect distant tissues.
All of the following effects of neoplasia are applicable both to the local organ and to
distant metastases.
• Local effects are direct effects of that neoplasm on the tissue they are within
• Note
• Which neoplasms cause more disease? Benign or malignant?
o Malignant
• More likely to metastasis and cause more disease
• However are all benign tumors completely innocuous? (non-harmful)
o No some benign tumors (considered benign because they are not particularly
invasive and probably won't metastasis) but they can still cause severe disease
• They causes this disease in two ways
Locally
• Space occupying lesions (top right - brain)
• Abnormality or mass in one of the lobes which caused
severe disease
• This is because the tumor was located in a closed space
which doesn’t have space to move, therefore the tumor
growth caused compression on a vital organ
• Replacement of tissue (top left - liver)
• If the neoplastic cells take over the cells of that organ there
will be a loss of function
• Organ becomes non-functional upsetting homeostasis of
the body
• Bottom right - bone marrow
o Neoplastic cells taking over where the bone marrow should be
• This affects the production of blood cells
Document Summary
How does neoplasia cause disease: clinical aspects of neoplasia, morbidity: illness, mortality: death, there are a number of different ways neoplasms cause morbidity and mortality. Neoplasms can directly and indirectly affect the body through several mechanisms. It is important to understand these mechanisms in order to full understand the spectrum of cancer and its influence over the body. As we discussed previously, neoplasms despite their benign or malignant nature can directly affect the body. It is really important to understand that local and hormonal effects can occur with both with benign and malignant tumours. All of the following effects of neoplasia are applicable both to the local organ and to distant metastases. Animal may present as anemic, have immune suppression and are likely to get infection: bottom left - stomach, ulceration. Direct effects (usually local but can be distant) of neoplasia include mechanical effects (e. g. space-occupying lesion).