Medical oncology course provides students with the basic knowledge relative to neoplastic diseases both under the etio-pathogenetic and bio-molecular point of view and under the clinical point of view. In this latter context students will learn about the most recent achievements in the field of prevention, diagnosis and therapy of the major  tumors . A special enphasis  is devoted in treating the topics of greater interest to community physicians and general practioners, 

Knowledge and understanding

1)To become confident with the main clinical syndromes; to identify disease signs and symptoms to correctly diagnose tumor conditions ; to learn how to use appropriately imaging and lab techniques to diagnose, stage and classify tumors

2) to become confident with the major classification systems and with response criteria ; to become  able to intercept patient and care-givers’ needs;

3) to become confident with the principle bio-molecular techniques and to interpret the reports relative to their clinical applications in major tumors;

4) to become confident with modern therapeutic strategies and with the main therapeutic tools available to day.

Abilities

1)to collect patient history and in particular the information more useful for tumor diagnosis and patient management

2)to learn how to inform patients about their disease and to share with them the most appropriate therapeutic options

3)to achieve adequate skills to examin the patient  and to manage with the most appropriate imaging and lab examinations

4)to become sufficientely skilled  in diagnosticate neoplastic diseases and in decision making

Medical Oncology course includes  Oncology classes (=21 hours) and attendance of the clinical ward for students who choice to spend their professional training in Medical oncology .

Principles of diagnosis, staging,classification ; patient engagement;evaluation of tumor response and clinical benefit, simultaneous care models

Tumor prevention- Screening- Chemo-prevention

Cytotoxic chemotherapy- general principles: activity, efficacy, toxicity

Hormonal therapies- general principles: activity, efficacy, toxicity

New molecular targets and principles of immunotherapy

Methodology of clinical trials in Oncology

Multimodal therapies: adjuvant and neo-adjuvant therapies; palliative treatment of cancer

EBM; how to utilize medical guidelines

Diagnosis and tretament of colo-rectal cancer and of cancer of the upper GI

Diagnosis and treatment of skin cancer (melanoma)

Diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer

Diagnosis and treatment of  lung cancer

Diagnosis  and treatment of GU neoplasms (prostate, testis,kidney,urothelial tumors)

Diagnosis and treatment of  gynecological tumors

 Suggested text books

Bianco, DePlacido, Tortora & Conte

Core curriculum of Clinical Oncology 2/ed

Mc Graw Hill Education (Italy)

Harrison:  Principles of Internal medicine  

Ed CEA 2016-  chapters dedicated to neoplastic diseases

The whole set of slides concerning lessons   is available at the website Unige-Aula web

The final test includes 62 questions (31 hematology and 31 oncology) with multiple choice (only one is correct).

 One point is assigned to each correct answer relative to each test (i.e. Hematology and medical Oncology) and the students are requested to answer correctly at least to 18 questions of each test to pass the exam. Students responding correctly to all the questions of each test are conferred the score of 30/30 cum laude.  The final score is calculated through the weighed mean  resulting from the sum of the scores obtained for each test.

The whole set of slides concerning the lessons  is available at the website Unige-Aula web

Students who cannot attend the whole course of lessons, can consult the suggested texts and the slides available at the Web site.

Teachers are committed to provide students with supplemental explanation and discussion of the more controversial issues

Students failing the tests can discuss their elaborates with their teachers in order to focus on their mistakes and receive further elucidations about the specific topic.