Deck 18: Cancer Genetics and Genomics

Question 1

Cancer cells

A)divide uncontrollably and then die.
B)are particularly sensitive to extracellular signals.
C)divide uncontrollably and are immortal.
D)are impossible to grow in culture.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

In normal differentiated somatic cells,telomerase

A)adds material to the ends of chromosomes with each cell division.
B)is not expressed and telomere tips erode with each division.
C)removes telomere tips with each division.
D)repairs double strand breaks in DNA.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Sporadic cancers result from

A)recessive or dominant mutation in a somatic cell.
B)recessive or dominant germline mutation.
C)mutation in a sperm or oocyte.
D)exposure to a cancer-causing virus.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Cancer cells are not

A)contact inhibited.
B)transplantable.
C)invasive.
D)immortal.

Question 5

The probability of cancer development in the general population is one is _____ people.

A)two
B)three
C)four
D)five

Question 6

Invasive malignant tumors typically contain mutations that affect the cytoskeleton and allow the cell to move from where it is anchored.

Question 7

A cancer stem cell can divide to give rise to

A)tumor cells,abnormal daughter cells,normal cells,and more cancer stem cells.
B)more cancer stem cells only.
C)healthy stem cells and normally differentiated cells.
D)invasive cells and metastatic malignant cells.

Question 8

Cancer does not typically follow a Mendelian pattern of inheritance because it is usually caused by

A)two gene variants,one dominant and one recessive,and no environmental input.
B)specific combinations of alleles and an environmental factor.
C)specific combinations of an environmental factor and one dominant gene variant.
D)genes that cause death before birth.

Question 9

Pancreatic cancer typically begins 10 to 15 years before it causes abdominal pain,and by the time diagnosis usually occurs,it has usually reached the point where it is lethal within two years.

Question 10

All cancers reflect,at the most general level,a defect in

A)DNA replication.
B)the formation of mitochondria.
C)cell membrane structure.
D)the cell cycle.

Question 11

A _____ mutation is one that is present in every cell of an individual,including gametes.

A)somatic
B)sporadic
C)germline
D)benign

Question 12

Dana Reeve,the wife of actor Christopher Reeve,died at a young age from lung cancer,although she had never smoked.Her cancer was likely caused by

A)a germline mutation.
B)two somatic mutations in the same lung cell.
C)exposure to carcinogens.
D)stress from caring for her husband,who had a spinal cord injury.

Question 13

The term used to describe the fact that cancer cells have lost the specializations of the cells from which they descend is

A)heritable.
B)angiogenic.
C)oncogeniC.
D)dedifferentiateD.

Question 14

Mutations that enable cancer cells to grow and divide faster than other normal cells are known as _____ mutations.

A)benign
B)gateway
C)passenger
D)driver

Question 15

Growth of new blood vessels in and around tumors is called

A)invasiveness.
B)angiogenesis.
C)metastasis.
D)dedifferentiation.

Question 16

A cancer's spread is called

A)metastasis.
B)malignancy.
C)carcinogenesis.
D)microstasis.

Question 17

A cancer cell is injected into a healthy mouse.The mouse develops tumors.This experiment indicates that cancer is

A)contact inhibited.
B)transplantable.
C)benign.
D)invasive.

Question 18

The connection between stem cells and cancer is that

A)all stem cells are also cancer cells.
B)cells may become cancerous by expressing "stemness" genes.
C)stem cells rescue cells that have become cancerous.
D)both stem cells and cancer cells have inactivated telomerase.

Question 19

Mitosis in a cancer cell can be compared to a runaway train that is racing along without signals and control points.

Question 20

After mutations begin a cancer,other factors that influence whether the disease proceeds include

A)how old a person is and whether he or she smokes.
B)whether a person has had cancer before and its location in the body.
C)location of the cancerous cell in the tissue and how specialized the cell is.
D)whether or not a person's relatives have cancer.

Question 21

Genes that normally prevent cell division are

A)tumor suppressors.
B)transcription factors.
C)proto-oncogenes.
D)oncogenes.

Question 22

A _____ mutation does not cause or propel a cancer's growth and spread.

A)passenger
B)driver
C)somatic
D)germline

Question 23

A missense mutation in the _____ gene,a tumor suppressor,results in stomach cancer.

A)HER2
B)RB1
C)E-cadherin
D)CML

Question 24

When tumor cell DNA is examined from people at different stages of the same cancer type,mutations that are common to all of them

A)act early in the disease.
B)act late in the disease.
C)acted on an initial cell and then reverted to wild type.
D)entered the cells on the same type of virus.

Question 25

The oncogene that causes Burkitt lymphoma results from a

A)translocation that moves a proto-oncogene next to an antibody gene.
B)point mutation in a proto-oncogene.
C)virus that inserts next to a proto-oncogene.
D)deletion of an anti-oncogene.

Question 26

Which of these are thought to have anti-cancer benefits?

A)Heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAs)
B)Cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli
C)Red meats
D)Baked potatoes

Question 27

Surgery is an effective method of treating cancer when

A)a primary tumor has spread through the blood stream.
B)a primary tumor is yet to invade healthy tissue.
C)all rapidly dividing cells are targeted by the surgery.
D)a patient has multiple tumors spread across his or her body.

Question 28

Tanisha was just diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer called HER2.The cancer started because

A)she has a deletion in the BRCA1 gene that is found in African-American and Ashkenazi Jewish women.
B)her affected breast cells have many extra receptors for epidermal growth factor,and so they receive too many signals to divide.
C)her affected cells have extra genes for epidermal growth factor,sending signals for the cells to divide too frequently.
D)a translocation occurred between chromosomes 7 and 8,generating and activating a breast-specific oncogene.

Question 29

A(n)_____ is a type of cancer-causing gene that promotes cancer by activating cell division at an inappropriate time or place.

A)DNA repair gene
B)tumor suppressor gene
C)oncogene
D)teratoma

Question 30

The cause of p53-related cancers is

A)fetal cells that remain in a child or adult,dividing too frequently.
B)continual expression of the telomerase gene,which keeps cells dividing.
C)deletion of cell cycle checkpoint genes.
D)failure to repair damaged DNA,allowing the cell to continue dividing.

Question 31

Chronic myelogenous leukemia is caused by a translocation that creates

A)a proto-oncogene.
B)a fusion protein that acts like a transcription factor,activating cell cycle control genes.
C)a protein that increases growth factor production.
D)a fusion protein that deregulates the cell cycle of myeloid white blood cells.

Question 32

In Wilms' tumor,

A)heart cells divide as frequently as do cells in the skin.
B)being exposed to cigarette smoke in the uterus causes lung cancer in infants.
C)cells in a child's kidney divide as frequently as if they were still in a fetus.
D)deletion of the retinoblastoma gene causes an eye tumor.

Question 33

A proto-oncogene can become an oncogene when

A)it is translocated next to a highly expressed gene.
B)it is translocated next to a gene that is not being expressed.
C)checkpoints are added to the cell cycle.
D)the cell cycle temporarily runs backwards.

Question 34

The first mutation typically detected in FAP (familial adenomatous polyposis)colon cancer is

A)APC.
B)TGF.
C)p53.
D)PRL-3.

Question 35

A gatekeeper gene

A)regulates mitosis and meiosis.
B)regulates its own mutation rate.
C)can destabilize the genome when mutant.
D)regulates apoptosis and mitosis.

Question 36

BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations are

A)X-linked.
B)incompletely penetrant.
C)translocations.
D)somatic mutations.

Question 37

Research has shown that a "cocktail" of several drugs,each acting on a different cellular pathway,is the best approach to treat many cancers.

Question 38

Loss of tumor suppression in a cell usually results from

A)a translocation of a tumor suppressor gene.
B)an inversion involving a tumor suppressor gene.
C)a deletion of a tumor suppressor gene.
D)activation of a proto-oncogene by a virus.

Question 39

In addition to activated oncogenes and inactivated tumor suppressor genes,epigenetic changes in gene expression are seen in cancer.

Question 40

Matthew has the inherited form of the eye cancer retinoblastoma (RB).His disease is caused by

A)a germinal mutation in one RB allele and no mutation in the other allele.
B)a somatic mutation in each copy of the RB gene in the same cell.
C)a germinal mutation in one RB allele and a somatic mutation in the other allele.
D)a somatic mutation in one of the RB genes in the same area of the retina of one eye.

Question 41

A more recently developed cancer treatment is

A)stimulating telomerase activity.
B)stimulating cells to return to a stem-like state of specialization.
C)inhibiting kinases based on genetic information.
D)replacing the nuclei in cancer cells.

Question 42

One of the challenges associated with eradicating cancer is its

A)simplicity.
B)heterogeneity.
C)homogeneity.
D)heterozygosity.

Question 43

A more realistic goal than eradicating cancer is to

A)slow cancer spread and convert it to a chronic,manageable condition.
B)genetically engineer human beings,making them cancer resistant.
C)suppress cell division and increase the longevity of human cells.
D)genetically engineer cancer cells,making them benign.

Question 44

Caley,a 30-year-old nurse at Bethson Hospital,is diagnosed with a brain tumor.Caley's doctor presents her with multiple treatment options.Which of the following treatment options is most likely to damage Caley's healthy cells in addition to the cancer cells?

A)Chemotherapy
B)Surgery
C)Liquid biopsy
D)Tyrosine kinase inhibitors

Question 45

Traditional cancer treatments include

A)surgery,chemotherapy,and radiation.
B)nutritional therapy and physical therapy.
C)monoclonal antibodies and cytokines.
D)gene therapy.