Tumour Biology

Aim

By the end of this course the student will be able to:

Knowledge and understanding

• Describe specific and acquired characteristics of cancer cells as well as the molecular basis of carcinogenesis including its regulation at the cellular level
• Describe how genetic changes and epigenetic factors affect carcinogenesis
• Explain the importance of oncogenes and tumor suppressors in regulating the cell cycle and apoptosis and explain the process of tumor progression and metastasis
• Identify basic risk factors for cancer

Competence and skills

• Design and conduct experiments to analyze how alterations in cell signaling can affect the cellular response to damage

Judgement and approach

• Process, analyze, evaluate experimental results in tumor biology and draw conclusions about the results based on published scientific research
• Evaluate and discuss new hypotheses in cancer research

Content

The focus of the course is to gain in-depth knowledge of tumor development in general and how genetic changes form the basis of cancer in humans. Furthermore, the course provides an overview of different forms of cancer linked to both clinical and biological aspects as well as to the occurrence of specific gene changes.

• Organ-specific cancer: different aspects of malignancy linked to environmental factors, origin, sex, hormones and molecular biology• Mechanisms behind tumor development, invasion and metastasis• Concepts in cancer genetics including oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, DNA repair genes and genes linked to apoptosis.• Epigenetic regulation in cancer• Control of the cell cycle and cancer• Hormones and cancer• Stem cells and cancer• Tumor immunology and immunotherapy• Principles of diagnosis and treatment of cancer• Biomarker testing in cancer treatment• Molecular methods to enable precision medicine