FRS 001OO — Sec. 001 — (1 unit) — CRN 73962— R 4:10-5:00 PM — CCAH Room 203
Introduction to Oncology

Instructor: Michael Kent, Department of Surgical & Radiological Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine

Description: Introduction to oncology is designed as a one unit seminar class to introduce students to the basic biology and treatment of cancer. It will cover some of the basics of tumor biology and will introduce staging, diagnosis and the different modalities of cancer therapy including chemotherapy and radiation oncology. The class will use case examples from veterinary oncology patients that have been treated at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital and journal articles covering a variety of cancer related topics that will form the basis of class discussions. The main goal of the class will be to give students a better understanding of cancer. It will also help them to understand how to read scientific articles critically and how to make presentations and lead class discussions.

Format: The seminar will be meet for one hour each week, except for the first and last class when we will meet for two hours, for eight weeks. Students will be given research or review articles each week to read and will be expected to turn in a short summary of the work the following week. Each student will make a ten minute presentation of the findings in one of the papers to the group and help lead a short class discussion on the topic. Grading: Grading will be based on the written article summaries (1/3), the in class presentation (1/3) and class participation (1/3).

About the Instructor: Dr. Kent is a member of the faculty in the department of Surgical and Radiological Sciences in the School of Veterinary Medicine. His area of research is veterinary oncology. Recent projects include work on mechanisms of radiation resistance in canine malignant melanoma and a drug trial to decrease the incidence of radiation induced vomiting. He is boarded in both radiation and medical oncology. He teaches classes in oncology to Veterinary students and also does clinical teaching in the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital.