Study Guide Exam #1

BIO 302 Fall 2017

Things To Know; Things to Ask Yourself (Key Concepts Covered)

 What are the most common cancer killers? Do we know what causes them?
Can they be prevented?
 Is the cancer death rate going up or down? Why?
 Is the cancer incidence rate going up or down? Why?
 How does cancer begin?
 What’s a mutation? How can a mutation be created by internal factors in the
body and by external factors outside the body?
 What are the 3 key characteristics all cancers have in common and that differ
from normal cells and tissues and allow cancer cells to outcompete normal
cells??
 What is the characteristic of cancer that causes most cancer deaths?
 How are cancers named? What is the most common class of malignant
neoplasms in human beings?
 What are oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes? What do they do? What
happens when they are mutated? What steps are required to cause a
functional change in an oncogene? What steps are required to cause a
functional change in a suppressor gene?
 What happens during cancer initiation, promotion, and progression?
 Describe the changes in form and function that occur during tumor
progression that allow neoplastic cells to be identified under the microscope?
 What are the key behaviors of cancer and how do they differ from normal cell
behaviors?
 What are the multiple abilities must cells acquire (or rather, selectively
reactivate from the repertoire of abilities of human cells) to metastasize?
What are the two phenotypic changes that they undergo in the process of
metastasizing?
 Can you explain the stepwise process of cancer formation from the point of
view of:
o Molecular changes?
o Changes in cell appearance and tissue architecture?
o Changes in cell behavior?
 What are the “hallmarks” of cancer exactly?? Which hallmarks are intrinsic to
the cancer cells themselves? Which are related to cells in the tumor’s
microenvironment? How do they interrelate (what’s the “cross-talk”).
 What are the key mechanisms related to each hallmark??
 How common is cancer in the biological organisms? Why is multi-cellularity a
requirement for cancer development?
 Explain how the basic tenants of the evolution of species apply to cancer
development in an organism.
 What is biological competition? How does competition apply to cancer cells
vs. normal cells? To cancer cells that are sensitive to a therapy vs. cancer cells
that are resistant to a therapy?
 What is a complex adaptive system? How does it differ from a complicated
system? Why is cancer a complex adaptive system? What challenges for
therapy does this present??