What IS Cancer?
When we say cancer, most people think of a large mass of abnormal cells that causes clinically detectable symptoms. That is usually true, but the story of cancer starts years or decades earlier.
All cancers start out with genetically damaged cells, but that alone is not to define cells as cancer cells. So when do we call a mass of rapidly growing cells cancer? That is one of the questions students in this course learn to answer.
Here are some more questions we talk about over a semester:
- Who is likely to get cancer? Why?
Overall, the total US incidence is estimated at 1.69 million new diagnoses annually, and 595,690 deaths. In the United States, cancer is poised to become the main cause of death overall. So who is most likely to develop it? However, those deaths are NOT distributed equally over all age groups. The graph below shows the incidence, meaning, the average number of people (out of 100,000) in the U.S. annually who will get cancer on the Y axis, versus age on the X-axis. From this we see cancer is FAR more common as we get older.
- Which types are we most likely to develop? Most likely to die from? Why?
Some cancers grow so slowly that we are starting to think treating them is more harmful to patients than leaving them alone. Other cancers are so aggressive that immediate treatment is the only chance a patient has to survive?
- Why should we study the biology of cancer?
- Understanding cancer reveals basic biology of normal cells. Much of what we know about normal cell function has come from labs and researchers working to understand how normal functions have failed in cancer cells
- Understanding how it starts and why it progresses helps us predict behavior and progression. There are ~200 types of cancer known, and it is estimated that each of these types can be sub-divided based on underlying mutations. Knowing how a particular cancer type is likely to behave is the first step in effective treatment.
Who Is This Course For?
- This is a junior/senior seminar course.
- Prerequisite courses are BIO150, BIO160, their associated labs, and either BIO265: Cell and Molecular Biology (preferred) or BIO255: Comparative Physiology.
- Please do not sign up for this course if you are not comfortable working in teams with other students, or prefer not to be in a discussion-intensive course.
How Do I Run This Course?
- In the first 3 weeks I provide general historical background on what we know about cancer, up to the discovery of oncogenes.
- Starting in Week 4, teams of 3 students will be teaching class with me. I will provide background on 1 of the 10 hallmarks of cancer, then the team will present a primary literature article on that hallmark.
- Teams will be responsible for writing a summary guide to their hallmark. Other teams will provide suggestions for improvements.
- At the end of the semester we have a comprehensive final exam. You will be able to use the collaboratively written guide while you take the exam.
- Course grades are based on:
- Quality of responses to homework questions
- Participation in class discussions
- Web pages that summarize your topic hallmark
- Feedback to peers on their summary pages
- Responses on the final exam