Molecular and Clinical Aspects of Cancer - Block II

The course is divided into three modules:

Module I:

Module I cover the topics DNA repair, Transcriptional regulation, Chromatin and Epigenetics and the impact of these processes for maintenance and proper proliferation and differentiation of the cell. How dysregulation of any these processes may contribute to cancer development is discussed.

Module II:

The topics of Module II are infectious agents and their involvement in different cancer types, inflammation and cancer, and cancer stem cells. The infectious agents discussed are viruses, and how some of their encoded proteins have the ability to disturb the normal regulation of a eukaryotic cell. The inflammation section discusses the role of inflammatory factors for survival and proliferation of cancer cells. The cancer stem cell hypothesis in vascular and solid cancers will be discussed.

Module III:

Module III covers targeted cancer therapy, cancer omics and cancer epidemiology. Factors that may have a preventive effect on cancer development, immunotherapy and molecular medicines and how such

medicines specifically hit the oncoproteins and thereby inhibit growth of cancer cells are discussed. The epidemiology part highlights the impact of genetic and environmental factors in cancer development.

After completing the course the students will have the

Knowledge to: 

• Explain the main mechanisms of DNA repair, Transcriptional regulation, Chromatin and Epigenetics and the impact of these processes for maintenance and proper proliferation and differentiation of the cell.
• Discuss how proteins encoded by infectious agents have the ability to disturb the normal regulation of a eukaryotic cell and contribute to cancer development.
• Explain the roles of inflammatory factors in cancer development, and how the immune system can be modulated to recognise and destroy cancer cells.
• Discuss the impact of genetic and environmental factors in cancer development.
• Describe the roles of cancer stem cells as important targets of cancer treatment.
• Discuss the cancer stem cell hypothesis.
• Describe central methods in cancer biology research.

Skills to:

• Justify factors that may have a preventive effect on cancer development, the basics of immunotherapy and molecular medicines and how such medicines specifically hit the oncoproteins and thereby inhibit growth of cancer cells.
• Justify how dysregulation of epigenetics, DNA repair and inflammation processes may contribute to cancer development.
• Present and critically review high impact research papers within the field of basic and translational cancer research.

Competence to:

• Interpret results from own research and link it scientifically into the context of international basic and translational cancer research.
• Evaluate and Implement relevant methods of advanced cancer research in own project.

If you pass the examination in this course, you will get an reduction in credits (as stated below), if you previously have passed the following courses:

• BIO-8303 Molecular and Clinical Aspects of Cancer - block II 10 stp

Language of instruction and examination

PhD course. Registration deadline for PhD students and students at the Medical Student Research Program at UiT - The Arctic University of Norway: February 1st.

Application deadline for other applicants is December 1st. Application code in SøknadsWeb is 9303.

Course work requirements: Presentation of their PhD project, prepared prior to course start and presented in plenary the first day of the course. Lectures and seminars are obligatory.

The exam consists of three oral presentations of articles (1 for each module); presented in plenary. Questions from syllabus literature will follow the presentation. The presentation including the questions will be evaluated with pass / fail. All three presentations including the following examination must be passed in order to pass the course. All presentations are weighted equally and only one grade will be given for the three presentations.