Abstract
The current period is characterized by a dramatic progress in basic cancer biology that enters more and more directly into clinical cancer care. Especially the biological therapy provides a good example of this progress.
The development of new targeted drugs is crucially dependent on the increasingly detailed knowledge of molecular processes in cancer cells and their rational practical exploitation presumes insights into molecular biological characteristics of both the treated tumour and patient. This results in an individualization of cancer care, where molecular changes in each individual tumour could direct its treatment in the sense of tailored targeted therapy.
A necessary prerequisite is a deep understanding, by attending oncologists, of molecular biological principles governing the clinical behaviour of tumours. With this in mind, and alarmed by a remarkably high cancer incidence in our region, we developed an initiative towards a corresponding innovation of basic curriculum of general medicine at the Charles University Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen.
A new subject - Molecular Oncology - was introduced into the fourth year, just before the clinical period of study. The goal is to integrate the scattered knowledge gained in various theoretical and preclinical subjects and to apply it to particular oncological clinical questions.
This is achieved by an innovative case-oriented teaching approach. Small groups of students are confronted with particular clinical cancer cases, respectively, being lead by two tutors - a molecular biologist and a clinical oncologist.
Consulting the cancer casuistic in question with both of them, the students are lead to integrate the molecular biological and clinical aspects of each cancer case. Our final goal is to help raise a new generation of physicians that will regard the molecular biological and clinical dimensions of every patient as two sides of the same coin, and apply this principle into the every-day patient care.