The Cellular Basis of Cancer and Treatment

What The Cellular Basis of Cancer and Treatment covers

The Cellular Basis of Cancer and Treatment is examined in all three written papers — the specification states that Components 01, 02 and 03 can each assess content from any of the five modules, so nothing is confined to one paper. It covers risk factors for non-communicable disease, cell cycle control and tumour formation, proto-oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes, epidemiological evidence, screening and genetic testing, methods used to detect cancer and treating patients with cancer.

The 6 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Risk factors for non-communicable diseaseRecall questions on non-communicable disease and its risk factors, why cancer rises with age, heredity, carcinogens, ultraviolet and ionising radiation, cancer-causing viruses, air pollution and asthma, and epidemiology, dose-response relationships, and cohort and case-control studies.Open →
• Cell cycle control and tumour formationRecall questions on the stages of the cell cycle, the G1 and spindle assembly checkpoints, cyclins and cyclin-dependent kinases, apoptosis of damaged cells, tumours and contact inhibition, benign and malignant tumours, metastasis and angiogenesis.Open →
• Proto-oncogenes and tumour suppressor genesRecall questions on proto-oncogenes and oncogenes, the proteins they code for and how they are activated, the Ras and Myc proteins, tumour suppressor genes and why both alleles must be lost, p53 and p21 at the G1 checkpoint, and silencing by promoter methylation.Open →
• Epidemiological evidence, screening and genetic testingRecall questions on the epidemiological evidence linking smoking to lung cancer, diet and bowel cancer, BRCA1 and breast cancer risk, screening and its false positives, false negatives and overdiagnosis, its economic costs, HNPCC testing, and the ethics of genetic testing.Open →
• Methods used to detect cancerRecall questions on detecting cancer by chest X-ray, mammography, CT, MRI, ultrasound and PET scans, their advantages and drawbacks, why a biopsy is still needed, and tumour markers in blood tests.Open →
• Treating patients with cancerRecall questions on when surgery is appropriate, how cytotoxic chemotherapy works and its side effects, targeted radiotherapy, monoclonal antibodies, hormone-related treatment for breast and prostate cancer, and complementary and alternative therapies.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take The Cellular Basis of Cancer and Treatment further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Benign tumour vs Malignant tumour

  Benign tumour: a growth that stays inside a capsule in one place and does not spread, though it can still press on nearby structures. Malignant tumour: a growth that invades the surrounding tissue and spreads through the blood or lymph to form secondary growths elsewhere.

• Proto-oncogene vs Oncogene

  Proto-oncogene: the normal, tightly regulated length of DNA whose product drives the cell cycle forward only when the cell is signalled to divide. Oncogene: the mutated version of that same length of DNA, whose product is made continuously so division carries on unchecked.

• Oncogene vs Tumour suppressor gene

  Oncogene: a mutated sequence with a gain of function that pushes the cell cycle onward, and one faulty copy is enough to do it. Tumour suppressor gene: a sequence whose normal product halts the cell cycle so damage can be repaired, and both copies must be lost before division runs on.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is meant by a non-communicable disease?

   Model answer

   It is a disease that is not caused by a pathogen and cannot be passed from person to person; it usually develops slowly and lasts a long time.

2. 2

   Name six categories of factor that increase the risk of developing a non-communicable disease.

   Model answer

   Heredity, ageing, radiation, carcinogens, viruses and air pollution.

3. 3

   Explain why the incidence of most cancers rises steeply with age.

   Model answer

   Several mutations must accumulate in one cell line before it becomes cancerous, and the longer a person lives the more mutations accumulate, while DNA repair and immune surveillance also become less efficient.

4. 4

   How can heredity increase a person's risk of developing cancer?

   Model answer

   A faulty allele of a gene controlling the cell cycle or DNA repair can be inherited, so every cell in the body already carries one mutation and fewer further mutations are needed for cancer to develop.

5. 5

   Define the term carcinogen.

   Model answer

   A carcinogen is any agent that increases the risk of cancer developing, usually by causing mutations in DNA.

6. 6

   Compare how ultraviolet radiation and ionising radiation damage DNA.

   Model answer

   Ultraviolet radiation makes adjacent thymine bases join together as dimers, which distorts the strand, whereas ionising radiation such as X-rays and gamma rays breaks the sugar-phosphate backbone and alters bases directly or through free radicals.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

The Cellular Basis of Cancer and Treatment revision questions

What does The Cellular Basis of Cancer and Treatment cover in OCR A-Level Biology B?

6 subtopics: risk factors for non-communicable disease, cell cycle control and tumour formation, proto-oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes, epidemiological evidence, screening and genetic testing, methods used to detect cancer and treating patients with cancer. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is The Cellular Basis of Cancer and Treatment organised?

By the OCR H422 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.