Pharmacology 3620 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Colorectal Cancer, Breast Cancer, Bone Marrow
1 May 2018
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Lecture 011: Cancer Chemotherapy - Introduction to Neoplastic Disease
Objectives
● Describe what is cancer and why it can be a fatal disease
● Name the different types of cancers
● Describe the approaches to treat cancers
● Define the basic principles of cancer therapy
● Describe the limitations of cancer therapies
● Name the different classes of drugs used to treat cancer
What is Cancer?
● A single world that is used to describe many disease
● Common characteristics:
○ Cells become abnormal
○ Grow/divide more than they are supposed to
○ Tumours can invade into tissue or metastases into distant sites in the body
● Lots of different tissue/cell types hence lots of cancer
○ Cancer is named after site of origin
■ Colon cancer -> primary tumor is in the colon
■ Still called colon cancer even if it metastasized to the lung
● Metastasis
○ Local tumor grows close to lymphatic/blood vessels
○ Somes cells get into the interior of the vessels and travel to different sites of the
body
○ Different cancer like to land in different areas of the body
■ Breast cancer -> lung, brain, bones
○ Melanoma-> liver, lung, brains
○ Some organs are easily seeded with metastasis
Categories of Cancer
● 5 main categories, classified via tissue type
● Carcinoma
○ Originate from epithelial cells (lines organs)
○ Very common because lots of linings exist in the body
● Sarcoma
○ Originate from mesenchymal (connective tissue)
○ Bone, cartilage, fat, muscle cells
● Leukemia
○ Originate from blood-forming tissue (in bone marrow)
○ NOT BONE TISSUE (different from sarcoma)
○ RBCs
● lymphoma/myeloma
○ Originate from from the cells of the immune system
○ WBCs, lymphocytes
find more resources at oneclass.com
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● CNS
○ Originate from neural cells
○ Neuroblasts
How does a normal cell become a transformed (cancer) cell?
● A single transformed cell can give rise to a large tumor
● Genetic mutations
○ Some change the cell in a way to give a growth advantage
■ Resistant to apoptosis
■ Grow faster
■ Grow in condition where normal cells can’t grow
● Usually needs at least 2 “hits” to become a cancer cell
○ 2 mutations
○ Can be in the same gene or different
● Tumor cells are genetically unstable
○ Rarely find just 2 mutations, usually lots
○ Once the first couple of mutations occur the genome is unstable, prone to getting
additional mutations
How do we remove tumor cells given their resistant nature?
● Surgery
○ Physically
○ Usually done first
○ Different when they grow in difficult to access sites or in areas where the Organ
is easily damaged (ex. brain)
○ Minimize the burden of the tumor
■ Less tumor cells left to treat
■ Then additional treatment to get rid of the remaining cells
● Radiotherapy/Chemotherapy
● Radiotherapy
● Chemotherapy
● Targeted therapies (drugs and antibodies)
● Immunotherapy
● Most efficient way to treat cancer is with MULTIPLE methods
Why do tumors cause death?
● Tumors often interfere with the normal function of the organ at the primary site or the site
of metastasis
○ Not the tumor itself that kills the person
● Lungs
○ Tumor gets bigger at the expanse of the normal lung tissue
○ Decrease in lung tissue means that oxygen intake is reduced
● GI tract
○ Reduced nutrient absorption
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Lecture 011: cancer chemotherapy - introduction to neoplastic disease. Describe what is cancer and why it can be a fatal disease. Define the basic principles of cancer therapy. Name the different classes of drugs used to treat cancer. A single world that is used to describe many disease. Grow/divide more than they are supposed to. Tumours can invade into tissue or metastases into distant sites in the body. Lots of different tissue/cell types hence lots of cancer. Cancer is named after site of origin. Colon cancer -> primary tumor is in the colon. Still called colon cancer even if it metastasized to the lung. Local tumor grows close to lymphatic/blood vessels. Somes cells get into the interior of the vessels and travel to different sites of the body. Different cancer like to land in different areas of the body. Some organs are easily seeded with metastasis. 5 main categories, classified via tissue type.
