Avis et commentaires pour d'étudiants pour Introduction to the Biology of Cancer par Université Johns-Hopkins

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My personal interest in this subject is primarily the fact that my mum died of lung cancer two years ago after 4.5 years after diagnosis. She had received chemotherapy, radiation as well as alternative therapy. And I was very much involved in her decisions. Concerning the course, although the content was really good, I need to make some comments in order to improve the course. Except from the first doctor, all the other speakers spoke very very fast and it was difficult to follow as a non native speaker even though my English is very good. It would have been better to talk a little bit slower. Also, I would make the course a little bit longer, a few more steps in between the lessons, slower meaning more explaining. Also, I would have appreciated if the lecturers were speaking facing the screen a bit more, not just showing slides. I would have also given some case studies. The course lacked case studies. For example I would have given at the end a whole week of cases studies, ie 6 case studies of people who had cancer, what type of treatment they had, others that did not have treatment as well. I would also have a quiz on these. Furthermore, I would have given some examples of alternative therapies too as working as complementary for example to treatment of cancer. I would have also given some examples of incidence and treatment of cancer in a selected other countries. I would have made this topic for an extra week as well. I would definitely be interested in taking a more advanced course as well.

Nice introductory course. Maybe the weak part were the hallmarks in relation to the cell-cycle. Cell-cycle checkpoints can be found in S, G2 and M-phases. Upon checkpoint-dependent cell-cycle arrest, cells do not exit the cell-cycle and, thus, they do not re-enter the cell-cycle once checkpoints have been satisfied. That is, they stay within the cell-cycle. Exit would entail senescence, which is theoretically irreversible (although it can be overcome). Hence, after arrest, cells could not exit the cell-cycle (Cyclins and Cdks are kept in check, for example, by p21 upon activation of the DNA-damage response to double strand breaks [ATM/Chk2/p53/p21). Speaking of senescence, fates stemming from p53 activation can be apoptosis but also senescence. Thus, avoiding cell-death is critical, but so is avoiding senescence (p53/p21-dependent). Finally, G0 is quiescence, not senescence. Quiescence is a reversible withdrawal from the cell-cycle whilst senescence is not. PD-L1/2 upregulation exhausts cytotoxic T-cells within the tumor microenvironment by activating PD-1. Howbeit, the activation of CTLA4 also inhibit T-cell function outside of the tumor microenvironment in a previous stage. CTLA4 inhibitory antibodies are under intense research and such research preceded that of PD-1 inhibitory antibodies. I feel CTLA4 should be mentioned.

The course is well organized and the very important points related to cancer have been covered briefly. It is surprising how the instructors organized the course to encompass all the relevant topics in a 6 week week module. What I think would be important updates are: 1. Better diagrams and cartoons, 2. Little bit more challenging quizzes (like the one I found after the "imaging in cancer" lesson, 3. Some reference to important journal articles during the course, which interested learners can consult, 4. At least another lesson on the hallmarks of cancer, 5. A separate module on the genetics of cancer, and 6. A bit vivid discussion on liver cancer (the "honors" module) . However, the course is great and I personally found it to be a very wonderful starting point to learn about the biology of cancer.

This course is very informative. However, I think the course contains too much contents which are not explained very specifically. I think spending more time to elaborate certain topics would be helpful. Also, I think it is better for students to preview some knowledge related to cell biology, which could help to understand some concepts/mechanisms more easily.

I am not a native English speaker so I am not quite sure whether people have to spend a lot of time memorizing all the terms. As least for me, to remember and recognize all of them is really difficult.

Overall, this course is really helpful!

Well-structured course, Dr. Pienta and his fellow team-members are passionate in what they do, and that's evident during the course, but I can't help to think that they have barely scratched the surface here... The lectures are good, they provide a lot of information, but the quizzes offer no challenge whatsoever. That was somewhat disappointing, it felt like I was cheating. All in all, I don't regret buying and completing the course, but I really hope that Dr. Pienta's team will be back soon with a more challenging and advanced course.

This course was very informative and very educational. However, one thing that I think could change is how long the estimated course time is because it doesn't account for how long it will take for you to take notes. I also think that the videos could have been shorter as some of them were about 15 minutes long which isn't that bad but the time it takes to take notes makes the 15 minutes turn into 45 minutes each. But overall, the course was very informative and I would recommend it to all.

Great informations but the creator of this class have to check and correct AT LEAST the English subtitles. They are clearly automatic subtitle and are wrong, which is really anoying. Especially for non-native english speakers..It has not been done since 2016, the year on which this mooc was posted, even though it is such a small effort to make but it will be very beneficial for those who are taking the class.

Thank you in advance for considering this proposition. Overall great class

I'm so happy about taking up this course. I've always wanted to learn something new which is different from my current field of studies [commerce]. I got a clear glance of what cancer is and the different types of treatments available. I've also learnt many new topics and words that I had never come across. I would surely recommend this course if you are wanting to know about the cancer, it's treatments and a general base to strengthen your knowledge about cancer.

I'm going to have Neuro-Oncology clinical rotation; therefore, I took this course. Honestly, I had expected to learn more deeper knowledge from the course, then it even didn't cover CNS tumor :(. However, the lessons is really suitable for whom has a little information about cancer, it was my fault for not read the instruction before purchasing. Great teaching attitude, I may introduce this course to my colleges.

Thank you.

I Higly recomend this course if you dont know mutch about cancer and you are interested iin learning about it, the information is prety simple (i am studing medicin so it may not be as simple for other people) but is very usfull and it gives an idea about the basics of cancer.

Thanks for this course and sorry if my english is not perfect... i speek spanish

It was an amazing course as I was not only taught about introduction to cancer but also its biology,imaging and treatment techniques.I feel i have learnt how to go about the process of screening and diagnosis of cancer and that by avoiding few habits and by inculcating healthy living, WE all could be safe from cancer .

This course is really useful for undergraduate students aiming for basic understanding of cancer treatments. Explanations and course material is well structured. For students with prior background in Biology will find initial lessons familiar but later pharmacological and imaging modules are quite informative.

Interacting with a medical practitioner treating , or who has treated cases may be of help. It would also be useful to assign students with assignments such as maybe a field study of the commonly prescribed cancer drugs at their local hospital. A very well made course otherwise. Thank you for this.

This was an interesting cancer basics class -- quick and simple for those with minimal background in oncology. The only disappointment was that the course description mentioned quizzes could be taken for no cost, but that turned out not to be true. Nevertheless, it was a valuable course.

An amazing course for beginners. Would recommend to everyone with interest in the Emperor of all Maladies- Cancer.

It would be greatful to have more courses at an advanced level specially including the techniques employed in research. Thank you so much Coursera and team of John Hopkins.

I am a biochemist and will be working on a cancer-related problem as a postdoc. This course was very helpful for me as it provided a clear general understanding of cancer, and I would have rated it five stars if it wasn't for multiple typos and inaccuracies in the course materials ;)