19 & 20 October – Introduction to personalised treatments for solid tumours

Thursday 19 & Friday 20 October 2017, Manchester

2-day course: Introduction to cancer biology & personalised treatments for solid tumours

Level: intermediate

Audience: Ideal for research nurses, clinical nurse specialists, administrative staff, clinical trials coordinators

Description: This 2-day course provides a grounding in cancer biology before moving to descriptions of a wide range of targeted treatments for solid tumours. Also includes mechanisms of drug resistance and an introduction to biomarkers and personalised cancer care. This course goes at a slower pace than many of my other courses, and includes a variety of practical exercises, question sheets and quizzes.

To book, contact: education.events@christie.nhs.uk

Programme Day 1

• Cells, DNA, chromosomes, genes, proteins
• Cell division and the cell cycle
• Cell-cell communication

• Why DNA damage results in cancer
• Causes of DNA damage
• Types of DNA damage and their consequences
• Oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes

• 8 hallmarks of cancer cells
• The tumour microenvironment

• The current state of play of targeted cancer treatments
• Monoclonal antibodies and small molecule kinase inhibitors
• Comparing monoclonal antibodies and kinase inhibitors

• The complexity of cancer
• Genetic instability and intratumoural heterogeneity
• Resistance mechanisms

• The importance of growth factor receptors and their downstream pathways as drug targets for solid tumours
• Growth factor receptor inhibitors in use and trials (e.g. cetuximab, panitumumab, trastuzumab, erlotinib, gefitinib, afatinib, osimertinib, lapatinib)
• mTOR inhibitors (everolimus), B-Raf inhibitors (vemurafenib, dabrafenib) and MEK inhibitors (trametinib, cobimetinib)

• VEGF/angiogenesis inhibitors (e.g. bevacizumab, sorafenib, sunitinib, pazopanib, axitinib)
• PARP inhibitors (e.g. olaparib)
• ALK inhibitors (e.g. crizotinib, alectinib, ceritinib)

• Immunotherapy-based cancer treatments (e.g. nivolumab, ipilimumab)

• New paradigms in clinical trial design
• Clinical development case studies: gefitinib and crizotinib
• The use of biomarkers to select patients for trials and treatments for patients