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SYLLABI FOR DOCTORAL COURSES

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Swedish title Cancer och cancerstamceller
English title Cancer and cancer stem cells
Course number 2849
Credits 1.5
Responsible KI department Institutionen för medicin, Solna
Specific entry requirements
Grading Passed /Not passed
Established by The Board of Doctoral Education
Established 2015-03-04
Purpose of the course
Intended learning outcomes After completion of the course, the student will be able to describe the concept of cancer stem cells, the relationship between cancer and cancer stem cells, as well as assays to identify these stem cells. Within this framework, the student will be able to demonstrate an understanding for the development of cancer in the context of solid tumors and leukemia. In addition, the students will be able to critically evaluate the advantages and drawbacks of basic mechanisms employed for cancer treatment in the clinic.
Contents of the course The course covers key principles of cancer development and cancer therapies, and provides an appreciation for the concept of cancer stem cells and its implications from a clinical and basic science perspective. This includes a general overview of molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying cancer development, drug resistance, disease relapse, cancer stem cells, therapeutic stem cell transplantation and clinical care for the treatment of solid tumors and leukemia, immunological cancer-related considerations, and perspectives for novel cancer therapies. The student will be required to take an active part in this course by contributing with presentations and discussions related to cancer and cancer stem cells.
Teaching and learning activities The pedagogic frame of this course is based on lectures combined with topic-related research articles. The course includes workshops where the students are required to present articles, integrate the knowledge acquired from lectures and reading of the articles, and actively discuss their acquired knowledge as a group. Each student will research, prepare and present his or her examination task orally.
Compulsory elements The lectures and discussions are mandatory. Absence is compensated according to the instructions of the course director.
Examination The individual performance of each student will be evaluated separately based on their presentation of a cancer stem cell-related topic and the feedback the students provide to their fellow students. The content and organization of the presentation and discussion will follow a format provided by the instructors.
Literature and other teaching material The course literature will consist of recent articles on selected topics within the field of cancer and cancer stem cells.

Examples of recommended articles:

1. Flynn CM, Kaufman DS. Donor cell leukemia: insight into cancer stem cells and the stem cell niche. Blood. 2007;109(7):2688-2692.
2. Stefanachi A, Leonetti F, Nicolotti O, et al. New strategies in the chemotherapy of leukemia: eradicating cancer stem cells in chronic myeloid leukemia. Current cancer drug targets. 2012;12(5):571-596.
3. Nishimura K, Semba S, Aoyagi K, Sasaki H, Yokozaki H. Mesenchymal stem cells provide an advantageous tumor microenvironment for the restoration of cancer stem cells. Pathobiology : journal of immunopathology, molecular and cellular biology. 2012;79(6):290-306.
4. Ailles LE, Weissman IL. Cancer stem cells in solid tumors. Current opinion in biotechnology. 2007;18(5):460-466.
5. Iwasaki H, Suda T. Cancer stem cells and their niche. Cancer science. 2009;100(7):1166-1172.
6. Chen SY, Huang YC, Liu SP, Tsai FJ, Shyu WC, Lin SZ. An overview of concepts for cancer stem cells. Cell transplantation. 2011;20(1):113-120.
7. Zimmerman AL, Wu S. MicroRNAs, cancer and cancer stem cells. Cancer letters. 2011;300(1):10-19.
8. Alison MR, Lim SM, Nicholson LJ. Cancer stem cells: problems for therapy? The Journal of pathology. 2011;223(2):147-161.
9. Iovino F, Meraviglia S, Spina M, et al. Immunotherapy targeting colon cancer stem cells. Immunotherapy. 2011;3(1):97-106.
10. Jones RJ. Strategies to eliminate cancer stem cells. Ernst Schering Found Symp Proc. 2006(5):219-230.
11. Friedmann-Morvinski D, Verma IM. Dedifferentiation and reprogramming: origins of cancer stem cells. EMBO Rep. 2014;15(3):244-253.
12. Serakinci N, Fahrioglu U, Christensen R. Mesenchymal stem cells, cancer challenges and new directions. Eur J Cancer. 2014;50(8):1522-1530.
13. O'Connor ML, Xiang D, Shigdar S, et al. Cancer stem cells: A contentious hypothesis now moving forward. Cancer Lett. 2014;344(2):180-187.
14. Chhabra R, Saini N. MicroRNAs in cancer stem cells: current status and future directions. Tumour Biol. 2014;35(9):8395-8405.
Course responsible Natalia Landazuri
Institutionen för medicin, Solna


natalia.landazuri@ki.se
Contact person Natalia Landazuri
Institutionen för medicin, Solna


natalia.landazuri@ki.se

Hong Qian
Institutionen för medicin, Huddinge


hong.qian@ki.se