A community health care nurse is teaching a group of female high ...

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A community health care nurse is teaching a group of female high school students about the importance of regular Papanicolaou (Pap) smears. The nurse recognizes that what fact underlies the rationale for this teaching?
 
  A)
  The active substitution of normal cells in the cervix correlates to cancer risk.
  B)
  Undifferentiated stem cells are an early indicator of cervical cancer.
  C)
  Cancer of the uterine cervix develops incrementally at a cellular level.
  D)
  Dysplasia in the connective tissue of the cervix is a strong precursor to cancer.

Question 2

Unbeknownst to her or her care team, a 51-year-old woman's breast cancer has an etiology rooted in the fact that tumor-suppressing genes are present but have been silenced.
 
  Consequently, she has not synthesized normal cancer-suppressing proteins, and neoplasia has resulted. What process has accounted for the woman's cancer?
  A)
  Chromosomal translocation
  B)
  The two-hit hypothesis of carcinogenesis
  C)
  Epigenetic mechanisms
  D)
  A DNA repair defect

[choc0chan]

Answer to Question 1

Ans:
C

Feedback:

Cervical cancer is indicated by incremental epithelial changes, beginning with dysplasia. Dysplasia does not involve active cellular substitution, as in the case of metaplasia, nor does it include a role for stem cells. Dysplasia does not normally occur in connective tissue, nor is the cervical lining made up of connective tissue.

Answer to Question 2

Ans:
C

Feedback:

Epigenetic mechanisms may silence genes, such as tumor suppressor genes, so that even though the gene is present, it is not expressed and a cancer-suppressing protein is not made. This process does not involve defects in DNA repair or chromosomal translocation, and while it may form a half of the two-hit hypothesis, this is not synonymous with epigenetic mechanisms.

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Thank you

[choc0chan]

Happy to help you