Tissue removed during a biopsy is examined under a microscope by a pathologist, the physician who confirms whether cancer is present.
Missing Word
pathologist
A pathologist is the physician who examines tissue and cells under a microscope. Biopsy review by a pathologist is the most reliable way to confirm a cancer diagnosis and describe how abnormal the cells are.
Category: Detection and Staging
Question 2
Keeping a portable lead barrier between the nurse and a sealed radioactive implant applies the radiation safety principle of shielding.
Missing Word
shielding
Shielding is a principle that limits radiation exposure, along with time and distance. Lead barriers, lead-lined rooms and portable lead shields absorb radiation before it reaches staff.
Category: Radiation and Treatment Care
Question 3
Because exposure drops sharply as a person moves away from a radiation source, the nurse works as far from a sealed implant as each task allows, applying the principle of distance.
Missing Word
distance
Distance is the radiation safety principle of staying as far from the source as the task allows. Combined with limiting time in the room and using shielding, it keeps staff exposure low.
Category: Radiation and Treatment Care
Question 4
A person is considered a cancer survivor from the time of diagnosis onward, whether the person is cancer-free or still living with the disease.
Missing Word
survivor
A survivor is anyone with a history of cancer, and survivorship begins at diagnosis rather than at the end of treatment. The term includes people in remission and people living with ongoing or stable disease.
Category: Survivorship and Support
Question 5
Chemotherapy and radiation can inflame and ulcerate the moist lining of the digestive tract anywhere from the mouth to the anus, a side effect called mucositis.
Missing Word
mucositis
Mucositis is inflammation and ulceration of the mucous membranes of the digestive tract caused by treatments that damage rapidly dividing cells. It causes pain, limits eating and raises the risk of infection and bleeding.
Category: Symptom Management
Question 6
For a patient with cervical cancer, a sealed radioactive source is placed inside the body right next to the tumor, a type of internal radiation therapy called brachytherapy.
Missing Word
brachytherapy
Brachytherapy places a radioactive source in or near the tumor so a high dose reaches the cancer while sparing distant tissue. Because the source stays in the patient, staff follow time, distance and shielding precautions.
Category: Radiation and Treatment Care
Question 7
A patient with bone pain, a fracture that occurred without injury, frequent infections and abnormal plasma cells crowding the bone marrow is diagnosed with myeloma.
Missing Word
myeloma
Myeloma is a cancer of plasma cells in the bone marrow. The abnormal cells weaken bone, crowd out healthy blood cell production and make excess antibody protein, which explains the pain, fractures and infections.
Category: Cancer Biology
Question 8
Because pelvic radiation, radical hysterectomy and some chemotherapy can permanently impair fertility, the ability to conceive a biological child, preservation options are discussed before treatment begins.
Missing Word
fertility
Fertility is the ability to conceive a child. Cancer treatment can end it, so nurses, oncologists and fertility specialists help patients weigh preservation options before therapy starts.
Category: Survivorship and Support
Question 9
Excess antibody protein made by a plasma cell cancer can thicken the blood, a dangerous state called hyperviscosity that causes headache and dizziness and raises the risk of stroke.
Missing Word
hyperviscosity
Hyperviscosity is abnormally thick blood that flows poorly, an oncologic emergency seen with excess protein in myeloma or excess lymphocytes in some leukemias. Plasmapheresis removes the excess protein and relieves symptoms.
Category: Oncologic Emergencies
Question 10
When chemotherapy destroys many tumor cells at once, the purines released from their DNA are broken down into a waste product, producing hyperuricemia that can form crystals in the kidneys.
Missing Word
hyperuricemia
Hyperuricemia is a high blood level of uric acid, the end product of purine breakdown. In tumor lysis syndrome it can crystallize in the kidneys, so hydration and urine output monitoring are priorities.
Category: Oncologic Emergencies
Question 11
In a patient whose cancer has spread widely through the bones, new confusion, muscle weakness and constipation suggest hypercalcemia.
Missing Word
hypercalcemia
Hypercalcemia is a high serum calcium level. Bone destruction by cancer releases calcium, and the nurse assesses mental status and muscle strength along with lab values.
Category: Oncologic Emergencies
Question 12
Cancer cells can escape apoptosis, the controlled, normal process of cell death that removes old or damaged cells, so they keep dividing and accumulating.
Missing Word
apoptosis
Apoptosis is orderly, programmed cell death that clears cells the body no longer needs. Evading it is a hallmark of cancer, because damaged cells survive and multiply instead of dying. It differs from necrosis, which is uncontrolled cell death caused by injury.
Category: Cancer Biology
Question 13
In tumor lysis syndrome, phosphate pouring out of destroyed cancer cells binds a mineral in the blood, producing hypocalcemia that can cause muscle cramps and tetany.
Missing Word
hypocalcemia
Hypocalcemia is a low serum calcium level. In tumor lysis syndrome the high phosphate level binds calcium, so calcium falls while potassium, phosphate and uric acid rise.
Category: Oncologic Emergencies
Question 14
A patient with enlarged lymph nodes, night sweats and fever has a node biopsy showing a cancer that began in the lymphatic system, a lymphoma.
Missing Word
lymphoma
A lymphoma is any cancer that begins in the lymphatic system. Enlarged lymph nodes, night sweats and fever are typical, and a biopsy of an affected node confirms the diagnosis and the type, such as Hodgkin or non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Category: Cancer Biology
Question 15
Rating how abnormal and aggressive cancer cells look under the microscope, separately from how far the tumor has spread, is called grading.
Missing Word
grading
Grading describes how much cancer cells differ from normal cells and how aggressive they appear, which helps predict how quickly the cancer may grow. Staging is a separate measure that describes the size of the tumor and how far it has spread. Both guide treatment planning.
Category: Detection and Staging