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Introduction to the Biology of Cancer

Cancer Biology,

Over 500,000 people in the United States and over 8 million people worldwide are dying every year from cancer. As people live longer, the incidence of cancer is rising worldwide and the disease is expected to strike over 20 million people annually by 2030. This open course is designed for people who would like to develop an understanding of cancer and how it is prevented, diagnosed, and treated. The course introduces the molecular biology of cancer (oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes) as well as the biologic hallmarks of cancer. The course also describes the risk factors for the major cancers worldwide, including lung cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, liver cancer, and stomach cancer. We explain how cancer is staged, the major ways cancer is found by imaging, and how the major cancers are treated. In addition to the core materials, this course includes two Honors lessons devoted to cancers of the liver and prostate. Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to: - Identify the major types of cancer worldwide. (Lecture 1) - Describe how genes contribute to the risk and growth of cancer. (Lecture 2) - List and describe the ten cellular hallmarks of cancer. (Lecture 3) - Define metastasis, and identify the major steps in the metastatic process. (Lecture 4) - Describe the role of imaging in the screening, diagnosis, staging, and treatments of cancer. (Lecture 5) - Explain how cancer is treated. (Lecture 6) We hope that this course gives you a basic understanding of cancer biology and treatment. The course is not designed for patients seeking treatment guidance – but it can help you understand how cancer develops and provides a framework for understanding cancer diagnosis and treatment.

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Rating 4.7 based on 503 ratings
Length 7 weeks
Effort 6 weeks of study, 1-4 hours/week
Starts Jun 26 (46 weeks ago)
Cost $49
From Johns Hopkins University via Coursera
Instructor Kenneth J. Pienta, M.D.
Download Videos On all desktop and mobile devices
Language English
Subjects Science
Tags Life Sciences Medicine And Healthcare Clinical Science Basic Science

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What people are saying

so much

thank you so much Dr. Kenneth J. Pienta and the other doctors.

I have learnt so much that will help me with my work in Integrative oncology and botanical medicine.

Thanks so much!

I finished the course in around 3 weeks, so medical students wouldn't get so much benefit out of the course.

It was an awesome course to do, I learned so much and the learning material was handed to me in a interactive way.

Really good I have learned about the biology and cause of cancer i love the cource It's a very good course with very specific goals and I really enjoyed it and really learned from it.I hope you can keep providing similar courses.But I think the evaluation method needs improvement to be more student-engaging.Thank you so much for letting me have this opportunity to study this topic with this tutorship.

Special thanks to doctor Kenneth J.Pienta.. Great course Thank you so much Good, crisp and to the point.

I have learned so much in the course.

I learned so much!

thank so much I very liked this course!

Thank you so much Coursera and team of John Hopkins.

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easy to follow

Very appreciated to get the course in An easy to follow but thorough course.

Very helpful Easy to follow entry level course.

The lectures are very well presented and structured, so they are quite easy to follow even for a layman.

The course is quite simple and easy to follow.

The course content is very well so that it is easy to follow and is a joy to learn all the important aspect without feeling frustrated for unable to understand.

The language and teaching style is so easy to follow.

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hallmarks of cancer

The 10 hallmarks of cancers are very useful.

I found the part on the hallmarks of cancer particularly interesting - a course that would go into more detail here would be on my wish list for future courses.

Thank you very much, Dr. Kenneth Pienta, for providing such an engaging course throughout 6 weeks, and I enjoyed every content of this course that is well structured especially Ten hallmarks of cancer, TNM staging, cancer imaging, and various types of cancer treatments.

Cancer is part of our curriculum and I found the lesson on hallmarks of cancer interesting.

At least another lesson on the hallmarks of cancer, 5.

this course is easy to understand and involved a lot of useful knowledge to facilitate understanding of the rational of new drug, in which the mechanisms are ofter related to some of the hallmarks of cancer.

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knowledge about cancer

fun and fantastic Excellent course, very well structured It was a great course which really enriched my knowledge about cancer very good I'm very grateful for this interestiong course, Thank you!

Though the course is easier than I expected, I still think it's a good course for students who want to know fundamental knowledge about cancer biology.

Anyone interested to have a knowledge about cancer basics would surely benefit by attending this course.

I would like to say thanks to the course co-ordinator of the course for such an excellent package of knowledge about cancer and also thanks to coursera.

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excelente curso

Excelente curso, buenas bases sobre el cáncer.

very nice introduction course Excelente curso introductorio wonderful courses and lot of knowledge obtained in this course really fantastic lecture If there is a more detail description about that different kind of the six most common cancers that would be great.

hope that there is more detailed course about cancer best for great KNOWLEDGE Excelente curso, aprendi mucho mas de lo que esperaba y esto me ayudara académicamente a very good eye opener.

Excelente curso, muy didáctico, ayuda bastante a complementar ciertas bases de conocimiento sobre la oncología.Los expositores de los vídeos realizan ejemplos sobre temáticas de cáncer de forma que uno pueda entender mejor.Agradecido y con expectativas de realizar mas cursos por Coursera.

Excelente curso!!

Excelente curso.

Excelente curso Extremely informative, will use moving along my career trajectory in medicine!

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well structured

Great Course, was literally hooked as content was very informative and well structured.

Well structured, amazing instructors!

Informative, well structured and clear objectives.

Explanations and course material is well structured.

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well presented

Crisp, well framed, well presented covering every basic aspect to understand the cancer biology.

Very well presented and easy to absorb.

Very interesting and useful information for non-specialists interested in this fieldUnderstanding is reachable even without scientific background but with a keen interest in medicine and cancers I find this to be a very informative and well presented course.

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dr. pienta

Dr. Pienta and the other Hopkins professionals involved in putting this course together did an excellent job and were engaging throughout.

Dr. Pienta is an excellent teacher.

Well-structured course, Dr. Pienta and his fellow team-members are passionate in what they do, and that's evident during the course, but I can't help to think that they have barely scratched the surface here...

All in all, I don't regret buying and completing the course, but I really hope that Dr. Pienta's team will be back soon with a more challenging and advanced course.

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Careers

An overview of related careers and their average salaries in the US. Bars indicate income percentile.

Cancer Information Specialist 3 $40k

RN Cancer Center $41k

cancer research specialist $49k

Administrator, Cancer Services $56k

Cancer Data Coordinator $59k

Certified Cancer Registrar $62k

Assistant Instructional Lab/Lecture Demonstration Technician 2 $66k

Cancer Registry $66k

Assistant Instructional Lab/Lecture Demonstration Technician $66k

Researcher, Cancer Estimation $67k

Cancer Registrar Manager $85k

Cancer Registar $94k

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Rating 4.7 based on 503 ratings
Length 7 weeks
Effort 6 weeks of study, 1-4 hours/week
Starts Jun 26 (46 weeks ago)
Cost $49
From Johns Hopkins University via Coursera
Instructor Kenneth J. Pienta, M.D.
Download Videos On all desktop and mobile devices
Language English
Subjects Science
Tags Life Sciences Medicine And Healthcare Clinical Science Basic Science

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