Download Q`s for Weinberg article

1/19/2016 8:04:00 AM
Reading Questions for:
How Cancer Arises by Bob Weinberg
Scientific American September1996
How Cancer Spreads by Erkki Ruoslahti
Scientific American September1996
1. Why do normal cells reproduce only when instructed to do so by other cells in their
vicinity?
2. How are cancer cells different?
3. When do tumors composed of malignant (cancerous) cells become lethal?
4. How do mutations in a gene cause changes in the functioning of a cell?
5. What are proto-oncogenes and tumor suppresor genes?
6. For a cancerous tumor to develop, what must occur?
7. What type of molecules are transcription factors, and what do they do?
8. Describe two potential drug targets for cancer therapy explained in this article.
9. Explain how gene therapy could theoretically cure cancer.
10.How does the cell cycle clock operate in normal cells?
11. What are kinases? Based on our previous discussions of kinases, what do they do?
12. In what ways are cell cycle clocks disabled in cancer cells?
13. Describe two ways in which human tissues (groups of similar cells) normally
prevent cell proliferation and cancer.
14. What is apoptosis? Why is it important?
15. How do cancer cells avoid apoptosis?
16. What are telomeres? How do they prevent cells from dividing indefinitely?
17. Why does it normally take several decades for a tumor to become malignant
(cancerous)?
18. How do most people avoid developing cancer until they're old?
19. Describe some ways that even people with "good genes" can get cancer.
20. Explain why some people are prone to sunlight-induced skin cancer.
21. What is metastasis?
22. Metastatic cells need to overcome two obstacles in order to grow in places other than
their tissue of origin. What are these two obstacles?
24. Why do so many cancers metastacize preferentially to the lungs or liver?