Types of Tumors and Tumor Ags
This term refers to an abnormal mass of proliferating cells.
What is a tumor (neoplasm)?
This is the main reason cancer usually doesn’t happen after just ONE mutation: cells can fix DNA damage and remove badly damaged cells.
What are DNA repair and apoptosis?
The pathogen whose immune response most resembles the response to tumors
What is a virus?
This potentially fatal systemic inflammatory reaction can occur after CAR T-cell infusion due to massive cytokine release.
What is cytokine release syndrome (CRS)?
This process, driven by VEGF, supplies tumors with new blood vessels and is targeted by some monoclonal antibodies.
What is Angiogenesis?
Tumors that arise from epithelial tissues, such as skin or organ linings, are called this.
What are carcinomas?
Losing this tumor suppressor gene is especially dangerous because damaged cells stop being forced into apoptosis, allowing them to survive and keep dividing.
What is the loss of p53?
The surface cell protein which much be functional for CD8 T cells to effectively eliminate tumor cells
What is MHC Class I protein?
This immune cell kills antibody-coated tumor cells during antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity.
What are NK Cells?
A process by which the immune system recognizes and eliminates cancerous cells before they become harmful
What is immunosurveillance?
Solid tumors of lymphoid tissue are classified as this type of cancer.
What are lymphomas?
These are viruses linked to human cancers, including cervical cancer and liver cancer.
What are oncogenic viruses (such as HPV and Hepatitis B)?
A reason that tumor cells are readily able to adapt to subvert immune responses
What is rapid cell division? OR What is increased susceptibility to mutations?
This checkpoint inhibitor blocks a receptor that competes with CD28 for B7 binding during early T-cell activation.
What is Ipilimumab?
or
What is the inhibitor that blocks CTLA-4
an immune mechanism in which NK cells kill antibody-coated target cells via Fc receptor engagement
What is ADCC?
Tumor antigens that are derived from mutations unique to tumor cells, like point mutations or fusion proteins, are called this.
What are tumor-specific antigens?
This is why radiation can be more damaging than many chemical carcinogens: it can cause major DNA damage beyond simple base substitutions.
What are DNA strand breaks and chromosomal changes?
The cytokine which supresses inflammation and may be secreted by tumor cells
What is TGF-beta?
This therapy bypasses low-affinity tumor-specific TCRs by using antibody-derived receptors linked to CD3ζ and costimulatory domains, enabling MHC-independent recognition of CD19-expressing tumor cells.
What is CAR T-cell therapy?
This type of tumor arises from connective tissues such as bone, muscle, or fat.
What is a sarcoma?
This subset of tumor-associated antigens is normally expressed only in testis or trophoblast, often encoded on the X chromosome.
What are cancer/testis (CT) antigens?
This is the term for the “new blood vessel growth” that tumors use to feed themselves oxygen and nutrients.
What is angiogenesis?
A cancer treatment that involves purposefully inducing a bacterial infection at the site of a tumor to induce an immune response
What is a bacterial adjuvant?
The checkpoint inhibitor that prevents T-Cell exhustion
What is Nivolumab?
or
What is anti-PD-L1
These antigens are unique to tumor cells and arise from mutations that are not found in normal cells.
What are tumor-specific antigens?