Clinical Oncology – Previous Examination Papers
Critically appraise the use of
18
FDG-PET imaging in staging, determining prognosis, treatment planning and
follow up of patients with cancer. Illustrate your answer using
two common malignancies.
Question 6
a)
Describe the problems associated with cancer treatment in elderly patients.
b)
Describe how you would evaluate an elderly patient with cancer prior to making recommendations
about treatment. What are the important factors that need to be considered to inform your
recommendations?
c)
You are going to treat an 80 year old man who has a T2N0M0 (tumour invades muscularis propria)
oesophageal cancer with radical chemoradiation. The patient has moderate dysphagia, he is ECOG
1, and has <10% weight loss.
What measures would you recommend to improve treatment compliance and tolerability? Include in
your answer possible modifications to the chemoradiation regimen.
July 2007
Question 1
Regarding the management of cancer pain:
a) Describe the use of systemic analgesic drugs and other pharmaceutical agents (adjuvants).
b) What are the commonly observed side effects of opioid therapy and how would you manage them?
Question 2
Describe the acute side effects and the late complications of the following systemic therapies:
d)
Androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer.
e)
BEP (Bleomycin, Etoposide and Cisplatin) chemotherapy for testicular cancers.
f)
Herceptin (Trastuzumab) for breast cancer.
Question 3
Regarding colorectal cancer screening programmes:
d)
Describe the criteria for choosing a suitable screening test.
e)
Describe the advantages and disadvantages of potential screening tests including a summary of the
evidence for each test.
f)
Describe the factors to be considered in assessing the costs and benefits.
Question 4
Describe the rationale, type of drugs used, expected benefits and potential risks associated with the use of
cytotoxic chemotherapy given concurrently with radiation treatment for cancers of the following sites:
d)
Head and neck
e) Rectum
f) Oesophagus
Question 5
Critically appraise the use of
18
FDG-PET imaging in staging, determining prognosis, treatment planning and
follow up of patients with cancer. Illustrate your answer using
two common malignancies.
Question 6
d)
Describe the problems associated with cancer treatment in elderly patients.
e)
Describe how you would evaluate an elderly patient with cancer prior to making recommendations about
treatment. What are the important factors that need to be considered to inform your recommendations?
f)
You are going to treat an 80 year old man who has a T2N0M0 (tumour invades muscularis propria)
oesophageal cancer with radical chemoradiation. The patient has moderate dysphagia, he is ECOG 1,
and has <10% weight loss.
What measures would you recommend to improve treatment compliance and tolerability? Include in your
answer possible modifications to the chemoradiation regimen.
February 2007
1. Discuss the issues to be considered when managing a woman who is found to be pregnant at the time of
diagnosis with a 10mm maximal diameter primary breast cancer. She has no distant spread of disease on
examination and imaging.