cancer biology

 Hallmarks of cancer writing assignment.

 The Hallmarks of Cancer is a landmark review article. The authors found and cited other studies and put it together in an article known as a review article. Read the Hallmarks of Cancer posted on Cougar courses. For this assignment you will also need to use and site a primary source/article. A primary peer-reviewed article is not a review article; it contains original research that has not been previously published. In order to find primary peer-reviewed articles you will need to use pubmed.gov or google scholar. Wiki-anything is not primary sources. In the Hallmarks of Cancer you will notice when they cite someone else’s work they end the sentence (Last name, Year of publication). Please do the same in this writing assignment and in your Cancer Brochure assignment. This writing assignment will provide some foundational information that you will be able to utilize in your cancer brochure.

 1. List the specific hallmarks of cancer discussed in the review article, ranking them in order of which you think should be the focus of more investigation in an effort to develop more therapeutic options for patients. 

2. Select one of the hallmarks of cancer and describe in detail what occurs in that hallmark towards carcinogenesis. Make sure to mention genes and mutations that contribute to that process. I highly recommend, (if possible) you make an effort to find a gene and mutation that occurs in the cancer for your Cancer Brochure assignment. Identify a gene and mutation that is involved in the carcinogenesis hallmark that is NOT mentioned in the review article. If the specific cancer mutation you found for your cancer is not mentioned in the review article you do not need to find a new one. If the specific cancer mutation and the hallmark mutation are in the same gene/mutation find an additional gene and/or mutation. How prevalent is that mutation in your cancer of interest? Is it a specific mutation in the gene that leads to its effect or does the cancer alter the gene with a plethora of different mutations in different patients? Now that you know a lot more about this hallmark and your cancer, search and find if there are therapeutics for your hallmark. What is the therapeutic? Is it a specific therapeutic for the hallmark that can be used for multiple cancers? Or is it specifically used to treat your cancer of interest and not specifically the hallmark? How do patients receive that therapy? 

3. Do you think there is a “silver bullet” cancer therapeutic that has yet to be discovered? By silver bullet I mean a cure that would work for all cancers. Please provide an explanation for your answer.

 When you are citing someone else’s work paraphrase do not quote and cite at the end of the sentence (last name of last author and year it was published).

 At the end of your assignment please list the references/sources you used.

 Do not exceed 3 pages double spaced, Arial font 11 or 12. Not including your reference that can be on another page and does not have to be double spaced.