CANCER TREATMENT MODALITIES

Course overview

This course covers many of the complexities of state-of-the-art cancer care including information on the epidemiology of cancer and cancer treatments. Cancer has in some ways become a chronic illness with many phases, signposts, and trajectories. Although some of the inroads being made in the fight against cancer are worthy of celebration, the situation is complicated. Course Objectives ¿Describe what is currently known about carcinogenesis, cell biology, and tumor cell characteristics, which provide the foundation for an understanding of cancer prevention, detection, and treatment. ¿Describe surgery as a means to diagnose, stage, and treat malignancies. ¿Describe radiation therapy as a treatment for malignancies. ¿Discuss chemotherapy agents ¿ how they work, why they are ordered as part of treatment regimens, and how they should be safely handled. ¿Discuss selected targeted therapies for selected malignancies, along with their mechanisms of action.