Delivered over two, two-hour sessions, Dr Elaine Vickers – a leading independent educator on the science of new cancer treatments – will guide you through many of the most relevant topics relating to modern systemic treatments for breast cancer.
Elaine first looks at why cancers arise – through the accumulation of gene mutations affecting important genes. She also looks at other vital factors in breast cancer – hormones, and the vigilance of the person’s immune system and also looks at the challenges we face in classifying breast cancer and the reasons why breast cancer might spread to other parts of the body.
Elaine then dives into the mechanisms of action of hormone therapies for breast cancer and looks at new treatments being developed.
In the second session, Elaine looks at HER2-positive and triple-negative breast cancer. She explains what HER2 is, and what features make it an almost-ideal target for treatments. After describing various such treatments, Elaine explains why resistance can happen and how it might be overcome.
Elaine then discusses triple-negative breast cancer, which is, in fact, a diverse group of diseases. She describes the progress made to date in developing more effective treatments.
Audience
Dr Vickers’ goal is to explain the science that underpins each treatment. She also hopes to provide learners with a broad understanding of why treatments work well for some patients but not for others.
This half day course is ideal for research nurses, clinical nurse specialists, pharmacists and clinical trials coordinators. It may also be of interest to other healthcare professionals involved in the diagnosis and treatment of people with breast cancer, and to junior doctors.
ACCEND
NHS England’s ACCEND Programme aims to support the development of a skilled and knowledgeable cancer workforce.
This course supports Component 3 of the ACCEND pathway, the Education Framework.
Specifically, this course’s objectives and learning outcomes meet core cancer knowledge needs at both the ‘Foundation of Cancer Care’ and ‘Fundamentals of Cancer Care’ levels.
The course will enhance learners’ understanding of cancer biology, the mechanism of action of systemic cancer treatments, and the use of biomarkers to select the best treatments for each patient.
The knowledge gained through this course will empower staff to feel confident when communicating with patients and their families, and with clinical and non-clinical colleagues.
Detailed description
Session 1
Presentation 1 – Introduction to breast cancer
- How breast cancer arises
- Who’s most at risk?
- How should we classify breast cancer?
- Common mutations in breast cancer cells
- How, when and why breast cancer spreads
- Who’s at risk of their cancer returning
Presentation 2 – Treatments for hormone receptor-positive breast cancer
- Hormone receptors and hormone therapies
- Why combine hormone therapy with CDK inhibitors?
- Causes of resistance to hormone therapies
- Targeting the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway
- Novel hormone therapies: SERDs and PROTACs
Session 2
Presentation 3 – Treatments for HER2-positive breast cancer
- What is HER2?
- Targeting HER2
- Antibody-based treatments – naked antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates
- HER2-targeted kinase inhibitors
- Overcoming resistance to HER2-targeted treatments
- HER2-low breast cancer
Presentation 4 – Treatments for triple-negative breast cancer
- Introduction to triple-negative breast cancer
- Immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors
- Sacituzumab govitecan and other antibody-drug conjugates
- PARP inhibitors for BRCA-mutated breast cancer
Pre-course preparation
Elaine has created two YouTube playlists about cancer biology and cancer treatments to help learners get the most out of her courses. Each playlist contains 10 videos between 3 and 8 minutes long.
Elaine also advises: “If you’re short on time and you’re not sure about the relationship between DNA, genes and proteins, I would suggest watching the Cells, DNA, genes and chromosomes and From genes to proteins videos from the Cancer Basics playlist as a priority. Also, if you’re new to cancer, I’d recommend the Mutations cause cancer video and, in order to understand how cancer cells interact with the cells around them, watch the Tumours are complicated places video.”
“In the Cancer Treatments playlist, there are videos about all the various treatments I’ll be mentioning. The two I’d prioritise explain why we use small chemical compounds (small molecules) and antibodies as cancer treatments. If you have more time, do also watch the videos on kinase inhibitors and immune checkpoint inhibitors.”
About Elaine Vickers
Elaine Vickers of Science Communicated Ltd has a PhD in Molecular Biology. She has worked as a cancer educator for over twenty years.
She is passionate about demystifying the science behind cancer biology and the latest cancer treatments such as kinase inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies, and immunotherapies.
Elaine is experienced in teaching people with any level of scientific or medical knowledge. She particularly loves teaching nurses and other health professionals who might feel daunted by the idea of learning about cancer science.
Her book, A Beginner’s Guide to Targeted Cancer Treatments and Cancer Immunotherapy, is now in its second edition. The first edition was Highly Commended by the British Medical Association book awards.
Elaine also makes short educational videos on cancer biology and treatments, which you can find on her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DrElaineVickers