Question

1. In what ways is the cancer tissue of spleen different from the normal spleen tissue? List all the differences

Answer 1

The following differences can be observed between cancer tissue of the spleen and the normal spleen

Normal tissue	Cancer tissue
Cell division is normal and well regulated	Abnormal mitotic figures and high rate of cell division.
Normal tissue are inhibited when they have reached their peak growth potential	Cancer cells continue to grow even after inhibitory growth factors are produced
Protooncogenes are suppressed. Chromosomes are normal.	Protooncogenes are activated. They may have characteristic genetic changes like translocation t(9;14), chromosomal deletion, inversion or aneuploidy.
Tumour suppressor genes are functional	Tumour suppressor genes are inactivated
Adhere to tissue matrix	Poor adherence to tissue matrix
Do not invade adjacent tissues	Invade the adjacent tissues like splenic capsule. They may also undergo metastatasis through hematogenous or lymphatic routes.
Can undergo apoptosis	Evade apoptosis and immune surveillance.
Well differentiated	Poorly differentiated or anaplastic
Normal NC ratio.	High NC ratio (nucleus-cytoplasmic ratio). They may have characteristic signs like pop-corn calcification as seen in hodgkin lymphoma.
DNA content is in normal limits	Hyperchromatism - increased DNA content in the nucleus that can be visualised by staining
Cell size and nuclear size is largely uniform	High degree of variation is size of nuclear and cell (pleomorphism)