8 modules on cancer biology: the Hanahan-Weinberg Hallmarks (with 24 interactive 3D PDB structures of KRAS, p53, MYC, PD-1/PD-L1 and more), oncogenes & tumour suppressors, cell-cycle dysregulation, DNA repair & synthetic lethality, the Warburg metabolism, the TME & immunoediting, metastasis, and modern targeted & immune therapy.
Eight Modules
- Part I — Hallmarks of Cancer: The Hanahan-Weinberg framework (2000, 2011, 2022); all 8 hallmarks + 2 enabling characteristics + 4 new dimensions; embedded interactive 3D structures of KRAS-G12C+sotorasib, p53, VEGF/VEGFR, PD-1/PD-L1.
- Part II — Genetic Basis: Knudson two-hit hypothesis, 12-driver oncogene atlas, 12-TSG atlas, drivers vs passengers, COSMIC mutational signatures (UV, smoking, APOBEC, MMR), 10 hereditary syndromes, the TCGA/PCAWG era.
- Part III — Cell-Cycle Dysregulation: CDKs and cyclins, the Rb-E2F switch, DNA-damage and spindle-assembly checkpoints, CKI atlas (p21, p27, p16), CDK4/6 inhibitors in HR+ breast cancer (palbociclib, ribociclib, abemaciclib).
- Part IV — Genome Instability & DNA Repair: MMR (Lynch), BER/NER (XP), HR (BRCA1/2), NHEJ, the synthetic-lethality story of PARP inhibitors in BRCA-deficient ovarian cancer (NEJM 2009 to current).
- Part V — Cancer Metabolism: The Warburg effect (Vander Heiden/Cantley/Thompson 2009), glutaminolysis & MYC, lipogenic switch, oncometabolites (2-HG, succinate, fumarate) inhibiting α-KG-dependent dioxygenases.
- Part VI — Tumour Microenvironment: Hypoxia and HIF, VEGF angiogenesis, CAF heterogeneity, ECM remodelling, immunoediting (Schreiber/Smyth elimination→equilibrium→escape), mechanisms of immune evasion.
- Part VII — Metastasis: EMT and the mesenchymal program, invadopodia and ECM degradation, the invasion-metastasis cascade, organ tropism (Paget seed-and-soil), dormancy, the premetastatic niche.
- Part VIII — Therapy: Cytotoxic chemo, kinase inhibitors (imatinib, sotorasib, vemurafenib), antibody therapy (trastuzumab, ADCs, BiTEs), checkpoint blockade (KEYNOTE-024, CheckMate-067), CAR-T (tisagenlecleucel, axicabtagene), drug resistance, precision oncology.
The course embeds 24 interactive PDB structures across the 8 modules — KRAS-G12C with sotorasib, p53, VEGF, PD-1/PD-L1, BCR-ABL with imatinib, MYC-MAX, and more — lazy-loaded via 3Dmol.js so the initial page load stays fast.