Biochemistry of Cancer

Learning Objectives

By the end of the section you should be able to:
  1. Understand the relative risks and statistics based on gender, race and society
  2. Relate the risks of attaining cancer due to various behaviors vs. genetic causes
  3. Know the stages of the progression of cancer
  4. Understand angiogenesis and it’s potential role in cancer treatment
  5. Describe the basic differences between tumor suppressors and oncogenes
  6. Discuss the different genetic mechanisms of cancer
  7. Give specific examples of chromosomal translocation which give rise to cancer
  8. Understand the importance of viruses in cancer
  9. Describe how point mutations vs. other mutations can lead to cancer
  10. In painful yet very complete detail, be able to describe how Ras is involved in cancer - at both the genetic and the protein level
  11. Explain the general role of tumor suppressors and the consequence of the gene mutations
  12. Discuss the specific current understanding of the breast cancer gene, retinoblastoma gene and P53
  13. Understand the mechanism of Bcl and bad in inducing apoptosis
  14. Know what caspases are and their key features
  15. In general terms describe how apoptosis and the regulation of cell growth is related to cancer