Most colon cancer starts as a benign growth called a polyp. To assess if the pol

Question

Most colon cancer starts as a benign growth called a polyp. To assess if the polyp is benign or has begun to metastasize, a biopsy (tissue taken from the body for a pathologist to examine it more closely) is usually taken. You have colon biopsies from two different patients A and B. Patient A's tissue sample has an intact basement membrane, whereas patient B's sample has a discontinuous (having intervals or gaps) basement membrane. Which patient is more likely to have had cancerous cells metastasize? Explain your answer. Explain what is the likely cellular event/process that damaged the basement membrane. 5.

Explanation / Answer

The basement membrane from patient A is found to be intact and that of patient B is found to be discontinuous. Therefore, the patient B is more likely to have metastasis of cancerous cells. This is because, the basement membrane acts as a barrier to cancer cell invasion and the breach in basement membrane would allow the uncontrolled proliferating cells to escape from the local site into systemic circulation. The basement membrane could be damaged by secretion of proteases and collagenases by tumor cells as well as oxidative stress and insufficient extracellular matrix.

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