The Tumour Microenvironment: Stroma, Hypoxia and Immune Exclusion · seed 1 · A4, ink-friendly. The answer key prints on its own page for grown-ups.
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The tumour as a hostile neighborhood

Science · Organisms & Life Processes · ages 22-24
Name ______________________   Date ____________

  1. What does hypoxia do to tumour cells?

    • It flips survival switches
    • It raises blood flow to the core
    • It slows gene reading to a crawl

  2. What is the tumour microenvironment?

    • Only the cancer cells by themselves in a dish
    • Tumour tissue with stroma and immune cells
    • The fluid the cells are grown in plus serum

  3. Stromal cells must carry driver mutations to support tumour growth.

    Circle one:   True   False

  4. A drug melts tumour cells in a dish but fails in a patient. Dosing was matched, the target is present in both, and scans show poor tumour blood flow with low oxygen cores. What best explains it?

    • The dish dose was higher than given
    • Poor delivery plus hardy low oxygen cores
    • The cells lost the drug target in the dish

  5. Killers crowd the rim but never enter the core. How do you classify this tumour?

    • Infiltrated with killers inside
    • No killers near the tumour
    • Immune excluded at the rim

  6. Which tumour is more likely to shrink once immune brakes lift?

    • Killers already inside the core
    • Empty tissue with few cells present
    • Walled off behind dense stromal matrix

  7. Suppressor cells and dense matrix ring a tumour. What combined effect do you predict?

    • Attackers slip past the rim with ease
    • Entry is blocked and attack is blunted
    • The rim cells starve for lack of supplies

  8. A colleague predicts delivery in tissue from dish kill curves alone. What is the flaw?

    • Dish curves misread harm to patients
    • Dish growth outpaces tissue growth
    • Dishes lack tissue gradients
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Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

The tumour as a hostile neighborhood W1-mt_OIrMAjomX_-s1

  1. It flips survival switches · Low oxygen can rewire programs toward rough vessels and tough survival states.
  2. Tumour tissue with stroma and immune cells · A tumour is a tissue, and its neighbors change how it grows.
  3. False · Stromal partners feed and shield the tumour without mutating themselves.
  4. Poor delivery plus hardy low oxygen cores · With dose and target held equal, starved cores can receive little drug, slow dividers can resist chemo, and low oxygen can blunt radiotherapy.
  5. Immune excluded at the rim · Exclusion means attackers are walled off at the rim.
  6. Killers already inside the core · Attackers inside are a clue for response once brakes lift; position never guarantees it.
  7. Entry is blocked and attack is blunted · Barricades plus calming signals produce the excluded pattern.
  8. Dishes lack tissue gradients · For delivery prediction, tissue context must enter; harm reading answers a different question.
Worksheet · LightMySky