Introduction to the Biology of Cancer

In this first week, we'll get a high-level introduction to the basics of cancer biology as well as incidence and common types of cancer.

Now, we'll turn our attention to the genetics of cancer, variation and mutation, two-hit hypothesis, and genomic instability.

All cancers share ten cellular hallmarks. This week, you'll learn to identify these hallmarks in order to distinguish a normal cell from a cancerous cell.

The lethal agent of cancer is metastasis. This week, we'll take a good look at this deadly event, TNM staging, the metastatic process, and an ecological paradigm.

This week, we'll examine imaging as a tool for diagnosis, staging, and treatment of cancer.

In this final week, we'll examine the variety of treatment options available to doctors and patients as well as the features of clinical trials and how they are used to improve the treatment arsenal.