Semester: Fall
Offered: 2023
Course Description & Assignments
Pediatric cancers are the leading cause of disease related death in childhood. Children that do survive are frequently left with devastating and life-long morbidity from the treatments required to cure them. The last two decades have shed tremendous insights into the drivers of these cancers, providing optimism that precision medicine approaches may lead to more effective treatments.
In this course, we will review the genetic drivers of childhood cancers and the mechanisms through which they drive tumor formation, in the context of normal childhood development. We will review the principles that underlie the design of clinical assays that can be used to profile tumors and the path through which translational discoveries can be evaluated in clinical trials. The course will provide an overview of current childhood cancer treatment strategies and their associated long-term effects. Finally, we will host a family who have faced the diagnosis of a cancer in their child, to learn from the patient's perspective.
Sessions will include review of literature and datasets, group discussions and ‘hands on’ assignments designed to reinforce the key concepts from each session.
Course Objectives
- Understand the differences in biology between pediatric and adult cancers, including the interplay with development
- Identify the unique translational and clinical trial development challenges associated with targeted therapies for childhood cancers
- Demonstrate the principals behind sequencing and trial design for precision medicine against childhood cancers
- Recognize the individual, familial, and societal late effects of childhood cancer survivorship
Course Directors
Pratiti (Mimi) Bandopadhayay, MBBS PhD
Tab Cooney, MD