All of us are affected by cancer in some way or another. The cancer death rate continues to rise. Globally, the World Health Organization estimates that cancer kills roughly six million people annually. In this course, the student will understand that cancer is not one disease, but a multiple of diseases and symptoms. Among them is Hodgkin s disease, Burkitt s lymphoma, testicular cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, and leukemia, to name a few.
Prevention is still an idea with plenty of untapped potential.
Thirty percent of fatal cancers for example, can be blamed primarily on smoking or dietary practices. Furthermore, new advances in our knowledge about how cancer develops and progresses, is important in providing new therapies that will exploit the molecular abnormalities of cancer cells. Unfortunately, political and economic hurdles stand in the way of doing more to prevent cancer, and threaten research aimed at improving care. The topics are designed to introduce the student to how cancer arises, spreads and what causes it. Advances in cancer detection, treatment and prevention will be studied as well.