Deck 18: Genetics of Cancer

Question 1

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.
E) lack of a cell cycle in affected cells.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

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.
E) apoptotic.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

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) nothing. It cannot divide further.
E) invasive cells and metastatic malignant cells.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

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

A) how old the person is and whether he or she smokes.
B) whether the person has had cancer before, and where in the body it was.
C) location of the cancerous cell in the tissue, and how specialized the cell is.
D) whether or not relatives have cancer.
E) the type of exercise that the person does and whether the diet includes enough fruits and vegetables.

Question 5

Chronic myeloid 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.
E) a deletion of a whole chromosome.

Question 6

In 1971,cancer was thought to be caused by

A) too little exercise.
B) too much chocolate and other sweets.
C) radiation, viruses, and chemical exposures.
D) oncogenes and tumor suppressor gene mutations.
E) a bacterial infection.

Question 7

A proto-oncogene can become an oncogene when

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

Question 8

Cancer cells are not

A) contact inhibited.
B) transplantable.
C) invasive.
D) de-differentiated.
E) immortal.

Question 9

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) is overexpressed and cells undergo apoptosis.
E) repairs double strand breaks in DNA.

Question 10

Growth of new blood vessels in and around tumors is called

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

Question 11

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) second hand smoke.
E) stress from caring for her husband, who had a spinal cord injury.

Question 12

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.
E) malignant.

Question 13

People were trying to treat cancer as long ago as

A)a million years ago.
B)5,000 years ago.
C)1600 B.C.
D)1900 A.D.
E)since the discovery of the genetic code in the 1960s.

Question 14

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's ability to extract energy from nutrients.
E) the cell cycle.

Question 15

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) environmental insults and no genes at all.
E) genes that cause death before birth.

Question 16

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) stem cells become cancerous if a person smokes.
E) both stem cells and cancer cells have inactivated telomerase.

Question 17

A cancer's spread is called

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

Question 18

The oncogene that causes Burkitt's lymphoma results from

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

Question 19

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) proto-oncogene
E) teratoma

Question 20

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.
E) have an extra set of chromosomes, which keeps them dividing.

Question 21

BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations

A) are X-linked.
B) are incompletely penetrant.
C) are translocations.
D) cause several types of leukemia.
E) are in oncogenes.

Question 22

Mutations in microRNAs can explain families who have different cancers but do not have mutation for known family cancer syndrome genes because

A) microRNAs are specific to families.
B) a single type of microRNA can have many targets.
C) microRNAs also serve as oncogenes.
D) exposure to different environmental toxins triggers transcription of particular microRNAs.
E) they caused reversion of the family cancer syndrome mutations.

Question 23

Which type of study would compare the incidence of colon cancer among Japanese and Americans of Japanese descent?

A) clinical
B) population
C) prospective
D) case-control
E) gene expression profile

Question 24

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.
E) a translocation between chromosomes 12 and 15.

Question 25

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 the infant.
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.
E) cancer develops in the breast when cells have too many growth factor receptors.

Question 26

A way that a microRNA can cause cancer is to

A) insert into an oncogene.
B) insert into a tumor suppressor gene.
C) cause a translocation.
D) block translation of tumor suppressor gene transcripts.
E) duplicate the genome.

Question 27

Genes that normally prevent cell division are

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

Question 28

Traditional cancer treatments include

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

Question 29

Loss of tumor suppression in a cell usually results from

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

Question 30

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.
E) are there by coincidence and do not mean anything about the disease.

Question 31

A breast cancer test for HER2 considers

A) genotype.
B) phenotype.
C) gene expression.
D) mutation rate.
E) receptor diversity.

Question 32

A gatekeeper gene

A) regulates mitosis and meiosis.
B) regulates its own mutation rate.
C) can destabilize the genome when mutant.
D) releases microRNAs that trigger parts of the cell membrane to open.
E) regulates apoptosis and mitosis.

Question 33

A more recently developed cancer treatment is

A) releasing control over apoptosis.
B) stimulating telomerase activity.
C) stimulating cells to return to a stem-like state of specialization.
D) inhibiting angiogenesis.
E) replacing the nuclei in cancer cells.

Question 34

The diets of 250 patients with pancreatic cancer are compared to the diets of 250 healthy individuals,over a four month period.The patients and controls are matched one for one for age,sex,and body mass index.The cancer patients tended to eat more barbecued meat,and none of them were vegetarians.The healthy group included 30 vegetarians and only four of the 250 regularly ate barbecued meat.The researchers conclude that it would be worthwhile to further test the hypothesis that compounds in charred meat cause pancreatic cancer.What type of study is this?

A) retrospective
B) nutritionally controlled
C) population
D) multigenerational
E) case-control

Question 35

Several genes that cause inherited forms of breast cancer have _____ in common.

A) broken single DNA strands
B) increased likelihood of a translocation
C) interference with repair of a double-strand DNA breaks
D) attracting radiation from the environment to the DNA, where it causes breaks
E) undergoing mutations that form ring chromosomes

Question 36

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
E) fried foods

Question 37

Matthew has the inherited form of the eye cancer retinoblastoma.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, then a somatic mutation in the other allele.
D) a somatic mutation in the one of the RB genes in the same area of the retina of one eye.
E) activation of the X-linked oncogene RB.

Question 38

Types of genetic information in a cancer "atlas" include

A) the types of foods a person eats and how he or she exercises.
B) lists of where people have lived and what environmental toxins they have been exposed to.
C) the numbers of each type of nitrogenous base in the genome.
D) mutations, gene expression, SNPs, microRNAs, and copy number variants.
E) the number of macroRNAs that are activated in a particular tumor type.

Question 39

The first mutation typically detected in FAP colon cancer is

A) APC.
B) TGF.
C) P53.
D) PRL-3.
E) RB.

Question 40

Tanisha was just diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer called Her-2/neu.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.
E) fusion proteins dot the surfaces of her affected breast cells, which attract carcinogens.