Michael had a nervous habit of chewing on the inner lining of his...

Question

Michael had a nervous habit of chewing on the inner lining of his lip with his front teeth. The lip grew thicker and thicker from years of continual irritation. Michael's dentist noticed his greatly thickened lip, then told him to have it checked to see if the thickening was a tumor. A biopsy revealed hyperplasia, but no evidence of neoplasia. What do these terms mean? Did Michael have cancer of the mouth?

Accepted Answer

Welcome everyone. Our next question says, what is the key difference between hyperplasia and neoplasia? A hyperplasia is irreversible. While neoplasia is reversible, b hyperplasia is associated with cancer. While neoplasia is not, c hyperplasia involves the uncontrolled growth of cells while neoplasia does not or D hyperplasia is a response to physiological need while neoplasia is not. So I think the best way of approaching this type of problem when we just have two things with different characteristics that are easy to mix up. It's just to kind of list and brainstorm the things that come to mind with each one that help distinguish them. So we'll put hyperplasia at the bottom and neoplasia and just list the different characteristics. So the similarity here is that both involve excessive growth of a tissue or an organ. So you have too much growth happening. But the key is that hyperplasia can be normal. Neoplasia is never normal. So, hyperplasia or excuse me, I should say neoplasia, it's never normal because it involves uncontrolled growth and it's the result of genetic mutation or DNA damage. This is in contrast to hyperplasia, which is regulated by hormones or growth factors. Now, something could be off with the hormones or growth factors causing abnormal growth. But there is a control happening there. Um as opposed to neoplasia where we have some sort of damage to the DNA genetic mutation that has disrupted the normal growth mechanisms, regulating growth in the cell. Uh hyperplasia can be reversible or stopped while neoplasia is not reversible. And then you say that hyperplasia can be a response to a stimulus or a physiological need. Again, it can be normal. There are normal times when you need a lot of growth in a certain tissue. But neoplasia is just result of some sort of damage, something going wrong. So response to damage. Now, one important thing to note is that neo places and hyper places can both. So we'd say both can be benign. So ne neoplasia is uncontrolled growth. But the key is when you talk about whether something is benign or malignant is that it doesn't spread beyond the local area, that's what characterizes benign. So you can have a neoplasia that has a uh uncontrolled growth going on due to DNA damage, but it can be benign if it isn't spreading beyond where it starts. So just a key thing to remember there. So let's look at our answer choices here to determine what's the correct description of the, as it says, key difference between the two. So choice. A saying hyperplasia is irreversible while neoplasia is reversible. Well, that is the opposite. So a little arrow showing the two of them switched. It's the other way around. Hyperplasia can be reversible. Neoplasia is not. Choice. B, hyperplasia is associated with cancer while neoplasia is not again, this is reversed. Hyperplasia can be stopped or can be reversible. Uh neoplasia as it said, it can be benign. So it's not always cancer but it can be associated with cancer if it then goes on to spread to distant areas of the body. So Choice B is incorrect. Choy C says hyperplasia involves the uncontrolled growth of cells while neoplasia does not, again, that's reversed in hyperplasia. That cell growth is still under control of some sort of stimulus, whether hormones are growth factors, neoplasia is uncontrolled, something's gone wrong with those growth regulations. So choice C not correct. So we're down to choice. D hyperplasia is response to physiological need. While neoplasia is not, again, neoplasia is response to something going wrong with those regulatory systems. So our answer is again. Choice. D see you in the next video.

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