Every year, the University of Oxford runs a summer school called UNIQ which is designed to give participants a taste of Oxford undergraduate life. Students in the first year of further education from UK state schools/colleges are eligible to apply for a variety of courses in different subject areas.
The Oncology course was run online from 19th-23rd July 2021 and comprised lectures and tutorials to teach students about various aspects of cellular and cancer biology, cancer treatments and clinical trials.
Julia McCarthy, a student on the DPhil in Cancer Science programme from Benoit Van den Eynde’s laboratory, gave a presentation on the types and causes of cancer, covering the genetic and environmental factors involved in cancer risk and development, the different types of cancer, and why some cancers are worse than others. Students then did a true/false quiz set by Julia that aimed to debunk common cancer myths.
Phil Xie, a DPhil student in Xin Lu’s laboratory, taught a session on how cancer is diagnosed. He gave a 30-minute talk and answered the participants’ insightful questions afterwards.
Ashvina Segaran is a Clinical Research Training Fellow undertaking a CRUK-funded DPhil in translational cancer biology in Skirmantas Kriaucionis’ group. She gave a lecture on how to treat cancer by surgery, to complement the talks on other treatments for cancer.