From Diagnostics to Therapy: The Application of Translational Research in Cancer

Undergraduate / Graduate

With the tremendous strides in medicine and healthcare, cancer is still a leading cause of mortality worldwide. Why is this? Cancer is a complex disease, which ultimately makes treatment challenging. Reasons for this disease complexity include the cancer origin/type; impact of cancer heterogeneity; complex interactions between cell types within the tumor microenvironment; tendency of disease to recur; and whether metastasis has occurred. Although cancer is still a major problem, there is hope founded on the recent advancements in technology/methodology in cancer diagnosis/treatments, which translational research has a significant role. In this course, students will learn about what cancer is and the characteristics that make it a complex disease. Translational research and its role in increasing the cure rate/prolonging survival will be defined. The course will cover the advancements in cancer diagnostics from imaging, sequencing, body fluids, and digital pathology using machine learning. The course will also include introducing methods of long-term monitoring of cancer progression/relapse and dynamic evaluation of the treatment effectiveness. Novel cancer treatments based on successes in translational research will be presented. Guest speakers that are experts in fields of cancer diagnostics, clinical pathology, and immunology will provide lectures on relevant topics pertaining to application of translational research to improve cancer patient outcomes.