About this course: Over 500,000 people in the United States and over 8 million people worldwide are dying from cancer every year. 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. Everyone has been, or will be touched by cancer in some way during their lifetime. Thanks to years of dedication and commitment to research we’ve made enormous advances in the prevention and treatment of cancer, But there is still a lot of work to be done. In this course, physicians and scientists at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine explain how cancer spreads or metastasizes. We’ll describe the major theories of metastasis and then describe the biology behind the steps in metastasis. The course also describes the major organs targeted by metastasis and describes how metastases harm the patient.

Who is this class for: This course should be helpful to anyone who wants to develop a deeper understanding of cancer metastasis. It should be useful to undergraduate students who are interested in exploring the science of cancer and to health care providers, data managers, and educators who need a more thorough understanding of metastatic cancer and how it affects individuals. The course is NOT designed for patients seeking treatment guidance.

Created by: Johns Hopkins University

Taught by: Kenneth J. Pienta, M.D., The Donald S. Coffey Professor of Urology
The James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute
Taught by: Jelani Zarif, Prostate Cancer Researcher
The James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute
Taught by: Sarah Amend, Prostate Cancer Researcher
The James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute
Taught by: Haley Axelrod, Prostate Cancer Researcher
The James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute
Taught by: Kenneth Valkenburg, Prostate Cancer Researcher
The James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute

Level	Beginner
Commitment	3 weeks, 1.5 hours per week
Language	English
How To Pass	Pass all graded assignments to complete the course.
User Ratings	4.8 stars Average User Rating 4.8See what learners said

Syllabus

WEEK 1

History and Overview of Metastasis

In this first module, we'll concentrate on the history and overview of metastasis and give you a flavor of how cancer is defined as well as some of the history surrounding how we began to understand metastasis.

5 videos

Video: Introduction to Understanding Cancer Metastasis
Video: Introduction to History and Overview of Metastasis
Video: History and Overview of Metastasis
Video: History of Metastasis Theory
Video: Introduction to the Sequential Steps of Metastasis

Graded: History and Overview of Metastasis

Primary Tumor Growth and Neoangiogenesis

In this module, we'll focus on uncontrolled cell division, which is a defining property of cancer, as well as mutation and neoangiogenesis and their roles in tumor formation. We'll also take a look at a primary tumor microenvironment and its component cell types.

5 videos

Video: Introduction to Primary Tumor Growth and Neoangiogenesis
Video: Tumor formation: Uncontrolled cell division
Video: The role of mutations in primary tumor formation and evolution
Video: Neoangiogenesis: new blood vessel formation in cancer
Video: The primary tumor microenvironment: what else affects primary tumor growth?

Graded: Primary Tumor Growth and Neoangiogenesis

WEEK 2

EMT / Invasion / Intravasation

During this module, we'll turn our attention to the next steps after the initial primary tumor formation, epithelial to mesenchymal transition of cancer cells, and local tumor invasion and intravasation into blood or lymph vessels.

4 videos

Video: Introduction to EMT / Invasion / Intravasation
Video: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition, invasion, and intravision
Video: Local Tumor Invasion
Video: Intravasation

Graded: Invasion and Intravasation

Survival in the Circulation and Extravasation

We'll now take a close look at cancer survival within the circulation, the role of the circulatory system in metastasis, the genetic determinants of metastatic potential, signalling mechanisms, chemokines, the dock and lock hypothesis, and extravasation.

6 videos

Video: Introduction to Survival in the Circulation and Extravasation
Video: Glossary of Terms
Video: The Circulation
Video: How cancer cells survive while in circulation
Video: Becoming a circulating tumor cell (CTC) and evading immune detection
Video: Homing to a new site in the body and extravasation

Graded: Survival in the Circulation and Extravasation

WEEK 3

Dormancy and Secondary Tumor Growth

In this module, we'll focus on dormancy and secondary tumor growth and how they contribute to the lethality of cancer.

6 videos

Video: Introduction to Dormancy and Secondary Tumor Growth
Video: Metastatic homing
Video: Evidence for cancer dormancy
Video: Cancer dormancy defined
Video: Properties of dormant cancer cells
Video: Secondary outgrowth

Graded: Dormancy and Secondary Tumor Growth

Morbidity and Mortality Associated with Metastasis

In the previous modules, we've looked closely at the sequential steps of metastasis and some of the biology of how metastasis occurs. Now, we'll turn our attention to morbidity and mortality, or in other words, how cancer hurts and kills people.

4 videos

Video: Introduction to Morbidity and Mortality
Video: Distribution of Metastasis: Where do cancers spread?
Video: Cancer Syndromes
Video: Congratulations

Graded: Morbidity and Mortality Associated with Metastasis

FAQs

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How It Works

Coursework

Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.

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Creators

Johns Hopkins University

The mission of The Johns Hopkins University is to educate its students and cultivate their capacity for life-long learning, to foster independent and original research, and to bring the benefits of discovery to the world.

Pricing

	Purchase Course	Audit
Access to course materials	Available	Available
Access to graded materials	Available	Not available
Receive a final grade	Available	Not available
Earn a shareable Course Certificate	Available	Not available

Ratings and Reviews

Rated 4.8 out of 5 of 242 ratings

Good content. Boring presentation.

I feel satisfied after Finishing it , Thank you.

I really enjoy the course. I am a medical student interested and Oncology and this course has encoureged me to carry on studing in order to become an oncologist.

Thank you very much for prepare this course.

Sarah, Gilani, Haley but, to me, especially Professor Ken's spirit and enthusiasm about the subject has been amazing :-) A BIG thank you to the whole team and I hope to be able to listen to Ken in the future as well, and I'm really looking forward to Haley having her own course available soon, she's great, a true role model for me!

Understanding Cancer Metastasis

Understanding Cancer Metastasis

Understanding Cancer Metastasis