PrepTest 155, Section 2, Question 18
Some potential anticancer drugs work by depriving growing(33 more words not shown)
The statements above, if true,(10 more words not shown)
- AThe cells in(16 more words not shown)
- BDrugs that inhibit(9 more words not shown)
- CFat tissue depends(6 more words not shown)
- DRodents with cancer(9 more words not shown)
- EDrugs that inhibit(7 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
If the drug blocks new blood vessels, could that explain why fat tissue stops growing too?
First, slow down on what the drug does. At the start, depriving a tumor of blood vessels might make us worry about cutting off an existing blood supply. Imagine a tumor in a hand: we wouldn't want treatment to mean cutting off blood to the whole hand.
But the next sentence clarifies the mechanism. Angiogenesis means creating blood vessels, and these drugs inhibit that creation. We shouldn't silently turn that into a claim that they remove all existing vessels.
Now the same drugs prevent obesity in rodents. That suggests a connection between forming new blood vessels and adding fat tissue. Perhaps growing fat tissue, like a growing tumor, needs those new vessels.
What we’re looking for
The question asks for the strongest supported inference. I'd look for that connection between new blood vessels and fat growth. We don't need to explain every effect of the drugs; we need to follow the particular process and result described here.
Working the answers
- A
Similar responses to a drug don't establish similar cell structure. A tumor and fat tissue could both need a blood supply while differing in many structural ways. We have no comparison showing that tumor cells resemble fat cells more than they resemble any other cells.
- B
This makes two changes at once. Preventing obesity means stopping the condition from developing; making an already obese person lose weight means reversing an existing condition. The studies also concern rodents, while B concerns humans. Neither jump is supplied by the information, so B reaches well beyond what we learned.
- CCorrect
Blocking new blood-vessel formation prevents obesity in rodents. That supports the idea that growing fat tissue depends on new blood vessels. It isn't a direct experiment establishing the rule for every possible setting, so we shouldn't pretend it is absolute proof of a universal biological claim. But it is the most supported connection among these choices: the process the drug inhibits is tied to the growth the drug prevents.
- D
The drug has been discussed in connection with tumors and obesity. That doesn't mean the rodents with cancer are more likely to be obese than healthy rodents. No such comparison appears. A treatment having two uses doesn't establish that the two conditions tend to occur together.
- E
Preventing new blood vessels isn't the same as preventing the body from absorbing vital nutrients. We might wonder about other effects, but the passage doesn't establish this one. Keep the inference tied to the reported connection between inhibiting vessel formation and preventing obesity.
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