Coursework: Therapeutic Targeting in Cancer

The coursework will comprise a poster presentation based around the combination cytotoxic chemotherapy treatment regimen limited to a single tumour type, and how these therapies target the most relevant Hallmarks of Cancer. Students will critically appraise current literature, identify and select the most relevant treatment strategies, and present the poster in a ‘mini-conference'. Students should be aware of any resistance mechanisms, combination therapies, and of intended cure vs. extension of life, and particularly good posters might address cost-benefit discussions of very expensive treatments that may extend life for only a few months. As part of the assessment, students will be questioned on their working knowledge of the poster content, and the limit of their knowledge determined in the key areas of the poster.

Guidance: Focus on an existing combination therapy with two or more cytotoxic chemotherapy agents (e.g. FOLFOX, but DO NOT do FOLFOX! It might be part of the Cell Biology lab). Outline how the drugs work and why they interact, i.e. work better together than separately. Refer to clinical guidance e.g. NICE guidelines. Discuss the clinical situation where it is used e.g. is it used as an initial treatment, or only after relapse from another therapy or surgery/radiotherapy. Questions that might be relevant to address include: What is the next step if patients relapse from this therapy. How are relapses or resistance detected? Is there a mutation that predicts relapse? What is the survival benefit of combination vs single agent therapy (usually shown by a Phase III trial) so feel free to show this data.