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Jacob is constantly telling his friends how sad it is that he sees so much skin cancer at his office—especially since so much of it could be prevented through the use of sunscreen. He is a dermatologist, and today he had two patients come in with what appeared to be cancerous moles. He removed the moles on both patients and prepared samples for histological examination. Jacob wanted to know whether either of the cancers had metastasized and gained the ability to move throughout the body. Tissue from Patient 1 included fibroid, spindle-shaped cells that resembled mesenchymal cells. Tissue from Patient 2 included many layers of thin, flat cells. Chemical assays showed that Patient 2’s cells were producing keratin and a glycoprotein called E-cadherin, which is a cell adhesion protein. Patient 1’s cells were not producing those materials. Based on these results, Jacob realized that, sadly, one of his patients would require much more intensive treatment.
Questions
1. Which patient do you think will require more extensive treatment and why? (Hint: Think about which patient’s histological samples show tissue characteristics that are not normally present in the upper layers of the skin.)
2. Based on the location (on the patient’s skin) and the histological description of the cells, what type of tissue do you think became cancerous in Patient 2?
3. How might cell adhesion proteins, like E-cadherin, prevent metastasis of cancerous cells?
