Cancer

• What are some features of malignant tumours?

  • Grow rapidly to a large size
  • Don’t produce adhesion molecules so can metastasise
  • Grow finger-like projections that go into surrounding tissue
  • Systemic effects
• What are some features of benign tumours?

  • Grow slowly to a smaller size
  • Produce adhesion molecules, so they stay in the tissue they came from
  • Surrounded by a dense tissue so remain compact
  • Localised effects
• What are the two types of genes involved in cancer?

  Oncogenes

  Tumour suppressor genes
• What is a tumour suppressor gene?


  Slow down cell division. If switched off means cells grow out of control

  Occurs via hypermethylation
• What is the process of hypermethylation?


  Occurs in a promotor region of a tumour suppressor gene

  The transcription of the promotor regions of tumour suppressor genes is inhibited so the gene is switched off