Classes of Course ?Oncology and Radiotherapy? for the students of integrated study of Dental Medicine (University of Zagreb) are held at the fourth year (VII semester). To better understand the curriculum of the course, students must have prior knowledge of the basics of internal medicine, pathology and radiology.
During the course, emphasis is put on epidemiology, diagnosis and prevention in the early stages of the disease, modalities of treatment, palliative care, and psychological aspect of treatment of malignant diseases, practical skills and diagnostic procedures in order to acquire basic knowledge of oncology.
The didactic part of the course is composed of theoretical lectures from individual chapters of oncology science. The practical part of the course is conducted in the form of presentations of patients with cancer who are treated in a modern oncology center. In this way, through the direct contact, students are provided with the most important knowledge in diagnosis, procedures and side effects of treatment for patients with solid malignant tumors.
Systemic cancer treatment consists of antitumor and supportive care. Antitumor treatment includes chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, immunotherapy, biologic therapy and isotope therapy. Within the practical part of the course, dental students gain knowledge in the field of systemic treatment, meet cancer patients, many new drugs that affect the oral cavity and learn to recognize the side effects of chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiotherapy.
Students are introduced to the modern radiotherapy techniques aimed at better local control of the disease, while successfully protecting the surrounding healthy tissue. They are presented the entire procedure of carrying out radiotherapy with an external beam, from CT simulation, contouring of the target volume, as well as organs from risk, development of a radiotherapy plan, and the implementation of radiotherapy itself. They are also introduced to brachytherapy, a form of radiotherapy in which the source of radiotherapy is brought in close proximity to the tumor and to the advantages of such treatment.
Within the practical part of the course, patients with the most common forms of tumors are presented, as well as their diagnosis and treatment. Attention is focused on the procedures related to the prevention of malignant diseases, the mechanisms of occurrence, and the importance of certain carcinogens in the development of cancer. The teaching emphasizes the division of head and neck tumors as well as the importance of recognizing these tumors in clinical practice (eg, some sub-localizations of tumors, clarified the difference between HPV-positive and HPV-negative tumors, etc.).
|
Pristupačnost