Biology of Cancer

Understanding cancer means understanding the multifaceted nature of biology. The reason for this rather blunt statement is straightforward: among the broad spectrum of diseases, cancer represents a unique didactic model as the malignant cell exploits to its own advantage the most essential biological features of the normal cell in development and adulthood. Thus, by studying the cancer cell in comparison to its normal equivalent, scientists have been able throughout the years to elucidate the molecular and cellular basis of life. That is why the study of the molecular and cellular basis of cancer is (or should be) integral part of any life science academic curriculum. The NB4040 course satisfies this need within the MSc program Nanobiology.

The general idea behind the NB4040 course is to provide the students with a basic knowledge of the biology of cancer by taking advantage of the lead provided by the seminal paper "The Hallmarks of Cancer" by D. Hanahan and R. Weinberg where the most essential features of the cancer cell have been described and discussed. The paper has already been updated in 2011 and most recently in 2022, which highlights its relevance in the cancer scientific community.

The book "The Biology of Cancer, 2nd edition" by R. A. Weinberg (Garland Science, Taylor en Francis Group, LLC, London, 2007, ISBN-10 0-8153-4078-8/ ISBN-13: 9780815340782) will form the basic textbook for the NB4040 course.

The course will start with three sessions on the cellular and molecular biology of cancer and its hallmarks. This will lay the basis for the following sessions where the focus will be on specific cancer types and their features, each covered by expert scientists and clinicians from the Erasmus MC Cancer Institute. These will include leukemia, prostate, bladder, and colon cancer. An additional session will be devoted to omics technologies and bioinformatics as essential experimental tools in cancer research.

These papers and book, together with any other reading material and the pdf's of the lectures are available for download from the Brightspace page of the course.

The format of the NB4040 is meant to satisfy different needs of the Nanobiology MSc student:

1. For those passionate about nanotechnology and its more translational and clinical applications (think of liposomes, DNA origami, nanobots, etc.), the course will highlight how each cancer type, depending on its specific hallmarks and peculiarities, and on the anatomical location of the primary lesion and of its metastases, will need specific strategies towards the development of effective targeted approaches.

2. For those who are more interested in cellular and molecular biology in homeostasis and cancer, the course will provide ample opportunities to deepen your knowledge and appreciate how even the relative relevance of each hallmark and the underlying mechanisms can substantially differ across distinct cancer forms.

In both cases, the elucidation of the hallmarks through which a cancer cell is established, progresses through different malignancy stages, and eventually metastasize distant organ sites, allows us to study and understand biology. As mentioned above, the cancer cell hijacks normal (developmental and homeostatic) programs to exploit them to its own advantage. Paradoxically, although as of today many obstacles have to be overcome to translate our current knowledge into therapies, we have nevertheless been acquiring a substantial body of fundamental knowledge in cellular and molecular biology through the study of cancer.