Carcinogenesis and Metastasis

Catalog description

This course explores the fundamentals of cancer development and progression. Beginning with Genetic and Environmental Carcinogenesis, students examine how inherited mutations and external factors initiate malignancy. The Genome Instability module investigates DNA repair defects and how genomic profiling guides targeted therapies. Lectures will also cover apoptosis evasion mechanisms that enable tumor survival, and how cancer cells reprogram metabolism to fuel rapid growth. Lectures will also detail the cascades enabling cancer spread, explore interactions between cancer cells and surrounding stromal, immune, and vascular components and how rare Circulating Tumor Cells in the bloodstream are used as biomarkers for disease monitoring and therapeutic resistance. Further, we will explore pre-metastatic niche formation, cancer cell organotropism, and therapeutic challenges and emerging strategies to overcome cancer. Students will gain an integrated knowledge of cancer biology from molecular mechanisms to clinical translation.