Cancer

What are some causes of cancer?

• Carcinogens like tobacco and alcohol

• Toxins like asbestos and pesticides

• UV exposure from the sun

• Spontaneous mutations

• All of the above

What is a mutation?

• A mistake in a gene that can produce a faulty protein

• A type of cancer cell

• An aggressive form of cancer

• A process that turns genes on and off

What is gene regulation?

• Genes turning into proteins

• Genes being copied for cell division

• Genes being turned on and off at various times in various cells

Why is the cell cycle tightly controlled?

• Only some cells should be dividing - cell growth at the wrong time causes cancer

• It is not, any cell an enter the cell cycle at any time

• No reason, it's just a coincidence

Which cells are NOT actively in the cell cycle in healthy adults?

• Hair cells

• Blood cells

• Kidney cells

• Reproductive cells

Chemotherapy can successfully kill only cancer cells.

• True - only cancer cells are actively dividing

• False - chemotherapy will also harm healthy dividing cells

How do genes cause cancer?

• We have specific cancer-causing genes

• We have good genes that when mutated can produce bad proteins

• They don't

• They attack other genes

Why do PARP inhibitors work to treat BRCA-mutated cancers?

• PARP inhibitors work for every type of cancer

• PARP inhibitors block the other DNA repair pathway, leaving BRCA-mutated cells completely deficient in DNA repair

• PARP inhibitors turn off the mutated BRCA gene

What is the main goal of cancer researchers?

• To find differences between cancer cells and healthy cells to create new treatment options

• To convince everyone that all cancers are the same

• To discover new types of cancer

• To look at every cancer cell under a microscope