1.
Name some risk factors that have been associated with H&N cancer. What are the suspected mechanisms for cell transformation?
2.
What are the stages the normal cell cycle? How does disruption of the cell cycle lead to carcinogenesis? What is apoptosis?
3.
What is DNA methylation?
4.
What are the clinical importance of cyclins and Cdks for head and neck cancers?
5.
What is loss of heterozygosity?
6.
What are oncogenes and how are they involved in carcinogenesis?
7.
Name some oncogenes that have been in identified in H&N cancer. Is there any data on to support their influence on malignant transformation?
8.
What are tumor suppressor genes?
9.
Name two suppressor genes in squamous cell carcinoma.
10.
What is the significance of the NOTCH1 pathway?
11.
What viruses have been implicated in the pathogenesis of head and neck cancer and which cancer types are they involved in?
12.
Discuss some of the unique behavioral risk factors and unique prognostic factors associated with human-papilloma virus (HPV)-related oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC)?
13.
Do patients with HPV-positive OPSCC have improved outcomes compared to HPV-negative OPSCC patients? If so, does this improvement seem to be treatment modality-independent?
14.
Is p16 positive the same as HPV positive?
15.
What are we clinically detect HPV?
16.
Describe the mechanism pf HPV oncogenesis.
17.
What oncogenes are involved in the thyroid cancer? What type thyroid cancer is it seen in?
18.
What is in vivo vs. ex vivo gene therapy?
19.
What are some targeted gene therapies in head and neck cancer?
20.
What is the genetic explanation for field cancerization?
21.
What is the Hedgehog signaling pathway and how is it been used to treat basal cell carcinoma?
22.
How does genetic heterogeneity relate to head and neck cancer?
Reference(s):
Mroz, E. A., Tward, A. D., Pickering, C. R., Myers, J. N., Ferris, R. L., & Rocco, J. W. (2013). High intratumor genetic heterogeneity is related to worse outcome in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Cancer, 119(16), 3034–3042.
23.
What are some side effects of BRAF inhibitors?
Reference(s):
Su, F., Viros, A., Milagre, C., Trunzer, K., Bollag, G., Spleiss, O., … Marais, R. (2012). RAS mutations in cutaneous squamous-cell carcinomas in patients treated with BRAF inhibitors. The New England Journal of Medicine, 366(3), 207–215.