Cancer Immunotherapy: a Step Change in Cancer Treatment

Over 12 million people die of cancer worldwide each year. Although treatments are improving, there is still a long way to go, and some cancers are still very difficult to treat. Consequently, there is a desperate need for new treatment approaches.

Learn about the rise of immunotherapy

The idea of harnessing your immune system to target tumours has been around for a long time, but in the last five years remarkable clinical trials results have led to immunotherapy being heralded as a potential turning point in the fight against cancer.

This free online course will teach you about the amazing job your immune system does in keeping you healthy, and how we can exploit it to fight cancer.

Understand how immunotherapy is starting to tackle cancer

We will explain why cancer presents the immune system with a particularly difficult challenge, and how cancer cells can escape immune attack.

You will learn how new immunotherapy strategies are transforming cancer treatment work, and why they are regarded as such a key breakthrough.

Finally, we will look ahead to new developments in cancer immunotherapy, which might provide the basis of tomorrow’s cancer treatments.

You can see what the educators and their colleagues in the University of Birmingham’s Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Centre are up to by following their Twitter feed @CIIC_UoB. You can also find out more on the CIIC website.

This course will be relevant if you are interested in cancer, or enjoy learning about the immune system and medicine. Secondary or high school-level knowledge of science is sufficient to complete this course.

There will also be optional, additional materials for those already educated to undergraduate level, and those who would like to challenge themselves and explore beyond the core material.