Understanding Cancer Metastasis (Coursera)

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.

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.
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.

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.
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.

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.
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.