Courses

Delivered over two afternoon sessions, Dr Elaine Vickers – a leading independent educator on the science of new cancer treatments – will provide an introduction to the science behind a wide variety of systemic treatments given to people with prostate, bladder, or kidney cancer.

Session 1: The first half-day session is dedicated to prostate cancer. Hormone therapies are central to the treatment of prostate cancer, Elaine will describe their mechanism of action, explain why cancers become resistant to them, and look at the new generation of hormone therapies in development. She will also describe PSMA-targeted treatment approaches, PARP inhibitors, and PI3K- and AKT-targeted treatments.

Session 2: The second half-day session is about bladder and kidney cancer. Much of the session will be focused on immune checkpoint inhibitors and their uses and limitations. Elaine will also describe angiogenesis inhibitors and targeted therapies such as antibody-drug conjugates and FGFR inhibitors.

As ever, Elaine’s presentations will be full of colourful diagrams, and she will explain the science behind the treatments using clear, understandable descriptions. She will explore how the treatments are designed to work, but also explain why they often only work for a time, before the person’s disease becomes resistant.

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 prostate, bladder and kidney cancers.

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 – An introduction to the biology and genetics of prostate cancer

• Risk factors for prostate cancer
• Common gene mutations and their consequences
• Patterns and numbers of mutations in prostate cancer cells

Presentation 2 – Hormone therapy for prostate cancer

• The importance of androgen receptors in driving the development and spread of prostate cancer
• Androgen-deprivation therapy (LHRH agonists/antagonists; anti-androgens)
• Second-generation hormone therapies and beyond
• Overcoming resistance to current hormone therapies

Presentation 3 – Targeted treatments for prostate cancer

• The logic behind targeted radioligands
• Lutetium-177 (177Lu-PSMA-617) and other ways of targeting PSMA
• PARP inhibitors for prostate cancers with defects in homologous recombination
• PI3K & AKT inhibitors

Session 2

Presentation 4 – Biology and genetics of kidney and bladder cancer

• Risk factors
• Common mutations

Immunotherapy for kidney & bladder cancer – part 1

• How the immune system recognises and reacts to the presence of cancer
• The importance of the immune microenvironment

Presentation 5 – Immunotherapy for kidney & bladder cancer – part 2

• Introduction to immunotherapy
• Why immunotherapy sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t
• Mechanism of action of immune checkpoint inhibitors
• Checkpoint inhibitor therapy for kidney, bladder and prostate cancer

Presentation 6 – Targeted treatments for kidney cancer and bladder cancer

• Why angiogenesis inhibitors are effective treatments for kidney cancer
• VEGF, mTOR, and HIF targeted angiogenesis inhibitors (e.g. pazopanib, axitinib, cabozantinib, lenvatinib, everolimus, belzutifan)
• Bladder cancer treatments that target FGF receptors (erdafitinib, pemigatinib)
• Antibody-drug conjugates for bladder cancer (enfortumab vedotin)

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 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

Financial information

If you are employed by Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, you can use the coupon code NUTH at the checkout to make a provisional booking and you will need to arrange access to in-house development funding. Your booking will remain provisional until your request has been validated with a funding/study leave reference.

If you are not employed by the Newcastle Hospitals an online card payment is required at the point of booking. Alternatively, if you are to be funded by your employer an invoice can be requested by using the coupon code Invoice.

If you are a LET employee you will need to pay by card as we are unable to invoice LETs.

Please see Coupons for further information relating to coupon codes and how to use them at checkout.

Cancellation and refunds policy

Should you no longer be able to attend the event on the booked date, please contact the Academy as we may be able to offer an alternative date subject to an admin charge.

Should you still wish to cancel your booking, you or your employer will be charged as per the fees outlined below.  Please contact [email protected]t to cancel your booking.

If you do not attend on the day, you will be charged the full cost of the event place.

See our Terms & Conditions and Cancellations & Refunds pages for more details.