GPLS 665 - Cancer Biology: From Basic Research to the Clinic

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This course is designed to introduce students to both the biology of specific cancers and to how patients with these diseases are managed and treated. The course consists of twice-weekly lectures in which a basic or translational scientist is paired with a clinician to describe a specific disease, and the major questions that need to be answered to improve treatments. Thus, the lectures alternate between lectures on basic biology and clinical management of cancer patients. The first half of the course deals with hereditary cancers and the second half covers sporadic cancers. In addition to attending the lectures, students attend one relevant tumor board conference (during which clinical cases are presented and discussed) each week. Each student is assigned a clinical mentor who helps identify a clinical question or problem of current interest, and each student writes a concise, focused mini-review of the literature and issues related to this question (guidelines are provided).