Update yourself with the latest advances in Comprehensive Medical Oncology and expand your knowledge in cancer molecular biology, cutting-edge therapies and precision medicine”

The field of Comprehensive Medical Oncology is a constantly evolving specialty due to scientific advances, clinical challenges and the growing demand for comprehensive and multidisciplinary care in cancer management. Medical professionals and specialists dedicated to this specialty face a series of specific novelties and challenges that require constant updating.

Given this context, TECH has created the advanced master’s degree in Comprehensive Medical Oncology, which offers an advanced and comprehensive update for those physicians and specialists interested in staying current in this constantly evolving specialty. This program provides a wide range of knowledge and skills necessary to address current clinical and scientific challenges in the field of Comprehensive Medical Oncology.

The rationale for participating in this program lies in the need to stay current in the constantly evolving field of Comprehensive Medical Oncology. Advances in the molecular understanding of cancer, the development of new therapies and treatment approaches, as well as the growing importance of comprehensive and multidisciplinary care in cancer management make it essential to have an updated and complete instruction in this specialty.

The advanced master’s degree in Comprehensive Medical Oncology offers a wide range of topics, including the molecular biology of cancer, advances in diagnosis and treatment, genomic data mining techniques, psycho-oncological care, radiotherapy and psychological treatments in cancer and third generation therapies. Participants will have the opportunity to update their knowledge and gain a comprehensive, multidisciplinary perspective on cancer management.

An outstanding advantage of this program is that it is taught 100% online, which allows participants to access the Virtual Campus from anywhere and at any time, adapting to their schedules and professional responsibilities. In addition, the program uses innovative educational methodologies, such as clinical simulations and case discussions, which allow participants to practically apply the knowledge acquired and strengthen their clinical skills.

Delve into multidisciplinary approaches to comprehensive cancer management, addressing clinical, psycho-oncological and side effect management aspects”

This advanced master’s degree in Comprehensive Medical Oncology contains the most complete and up-to-date scientific program on the market. The most important features include:

• The development of case studies presented by experts in oncology
• The graphic, schematic, and practical contents with which they are created, provide scientific and practical information on the disciplines that are essential for professional practice
• Practical exercises where self-assessment can be used to improve learning
• Its special emphasis on innovative methodologies in cancer management
• Theoretical lessons, questions to the expert, debate forums on controversial topics, and individual reflection assignments
• Content that is accessible from any fixed or portable device with an Internet connection

Delve into the latest techniques in the genomic era, use of Unix and Linux in bioinformatics, data analysis in Big Data projects with R for an updated and cutting-edge clinical practice” 

Includes in its teaching staff professionals belonging to the oncology field, who pour into this program the experience of their work, in addition to recognized specialists from reference societies and prestigious universities.

The multimedia content, developed with the latest educational technology, will provide the professional with situated and contextual learning, i.e., a simulated environment that will provide an immersive learning experience designed to prepare for real-life situations.

This program is designed around Problem-Based Learning, whereby the student must try to solve the different professional practice situations that arise throughout the program. For this purpose, the professional will be assisted by an innovative interactive video system created by renowned and experienced experts.

Expand your knowledge in specific cancers such as breast, lung, ENT, colorectal, gynecological, urological, sarcoma, melanoma and brain cancers"

Analyze assessment and measurement instruments in psycho-oncology, communication with the oncology patient and bereavement management"

The advanced master’s degree in Comprehensive Medical Oncology has as its main objectives to provide health professionals with an advanced update in the different aspects of medical oncology, to promote the acquisition of clinical and research skills in the integrated management of cancer and to foster a holistic and compassionate vision in oncological care.

Develop clinical and research skills in the integral management of cancer, with a holistic approach that seeks to contribute to the scientific advancement in the field of cancer" 

General Objectives

• Be able to accurately interpret the volume of clinical information currently available and associated with the biological data generated after a bioinformatic analysis
• Learn how to perform a good assessment of the cancer patient, starting with the epidemiology, diagnosis and staging of the most frequent tumors
• Delve into the complementary studies that help us in the diagnosis and decision making of the main neoplasms
• Become familiar with the main genetic syndromes that predispose to the development of this disease
• Recognize and manage the main breast, lung, digestive, urological, gynecological and mesenchymal tumors

Specific Objectives

Module 1. Molecular Biology

• Update knowledge on the molecular biology of cancer, in relation to different concepts such as genetic heterogeneity or microenvironment reprogramming
• Provide and expand knowledge on immunotherapy as an example of a clear scientific advance in translational research
• Learn about a new approach to the classification of the most frequent tumors based on genomic data available in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network

Module 2. Genomic or precision oncology

• Discuss the change in the current landscape with the introduction of genomic data into the biological understanding of tumors
• Explain how genomic classification provides independent information to predict clinical outcomes, and will give the biological basis for an era of personalized cancer treatment
• Learn the new genomic technologies currently used in DNA and RNA sequencing, based on the human genome sequence and made possible since the completion of the Human Genome Project, which has represented an unprecedented expansion of the capabilities of molecular genetics in genetic and clinical diagnostic research
• Discuss the bioinformatics process followed for the interpretation and application of biological data
• Analyze and interpret biological information at the molecular, cellular and genomic levels

Module 3. Changes in the Current Clinical Practice and New Applications with Genomic Oncology

• Discuss and know how to interpret tumor mutational burden (TMB) as a genomic biomarker that has a significant impact on the landscape of cancer immunotherapy
• Learn how liquid biopsy of circulating DNA allows us to understand specifically what kind of molecular changes are happening in the tumor in real time
• Describe the current paradigm for incorporating genomic data into current clinical practice

Module 4. Use of Unix and Linux in Bioinformatics

• Learn about the Linux operating system, which is currently essential in the scientific world both for the interpretation of biological data from sequencing and it also should be for medical text mining when handling large-scale data
• Provide the basics of accessing a Linux server and how to find and install packages to install software locally
• Describe basic Linux commands for: creating, renaming, moving, and deleting directories; listing, reading, creating, editing, copying, and deleting files
• Understand how permissions work and how to decrypt the most cryptic Linux permissions easily

Module 5. Data analysis in Big Data projects: R programming language

• Discuss how the adoption of next-generation sequencing (NGS) in a diagnostic context raises numerous questions regarding the identification and reporting of variants in secondary genes for patient pathology
• Get started in the R programming language, which has the advantages of being an open-source programming language and has multiple statistical analysis packages available
• Learn basic R programming concepts such as data types, vector arithmetic and indexing
• Performing operations in R, including sorting, creating or importing data
• Learn how problem solving begins with a modular decomposition and then further decompositions of each module in a process called successive refinement
• Learn the basics of statistical inference to understand and calculate p-values and confidence intervals while analyzing data with R
• Provide examples of R programming in a way that will help make the connection between concepts and their implementation

Module 6. Graphical Environment in R

• Using visualization techniques to explore new datasets and determine the most appropriate approach
• Learn how to visualize data to extract information, better understand data and make more effective decisions
• Teach how to take data that at first glance has little meaning and visually present that data in a form that makes sense for analysis
• Learn how to use the three main graph sources in R: base, lattice and ggplot2
• Know what each graphics package is based on in order to define which one to use and the advantages offered by one or the other

Module 7. Statistical analysis in R

• Describe the most appropriate statistical techniques as an alternative when data do not conform to the assumptions required by the standard approach
• Learn the basics of conducting reproducible research by using R scripts to analyze data

Module 8. Machine Learning for Analysing Big Data

• Rapidly and automatically process and analyze enormous volumes of complex structured, semi-structured and unstructured data in big data
• Understand what machine learning is and to use some of the techniques for data classification (decision tree, k-NN, Support Vector Machines, neural networks, etc.)
• Learn how to divide data into a test set and a training set and discover the concepts of bias and variance

Module 9. Data Mining Applied to Genomics

• Learn how data mining allows us to find patterns and regularities in databases
• Learn to apply the principles of data mining to the analysis of large complex datasets (Big Data), including those in very large databases or on web pages
• Explore, analyze and leverage data and convert it into useful and valuable information for clinical practice

Module 10. Techniques for extracting genomic data

• Understand how most scientific data appear in documents such as web pages and PDF files that are difficult to process for further analysis, however, using scraping techniques they can be used to
  Access to many data sources through the web for the implementation of precision medicine by allowing massive extraction of information

Module 11. New techniques in the age of genomics

• Put into practice the knowledge acquired for the interpretation of a genomic study in several cancer cases by extracting useful information that will help in decision making
• Using several algorithms performed with the R language for the extraction of knowledge from Pubmed, DGIdb and Clinical Trials databases based on the search for genetic information in certain tumors

Module 12. Application of Bioinformatics in Genomic Oncology

• Understanding the function of genes with little clinical information based on ontological proximity
• Discover genes involved in a disease based on a massive Pubmed search and graphical representation of the level of scientific evidence

Module 13. Breast Cancer

• Perform a detailed diagnosis, with adequate staging of breast cancer
• Know the basics of early diagnosis of breast cancer, the target ages and differentiate screening for low, intermediate or high risk patients
• Distinguish the main subtypes of breast cancer, to know the predictive and prognostic factors that help to determine the best treatment, both in early and advanced disease
• Become familiar with the different genetic platforms, which help to decide which patients benefit and which do not benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy treatment
• Determine which treatment is most appropriate for each patient, based on disease subtype and stage of disease
• Know each of the available treatments for advanced disease, as well as the main toxicities derived from it, highlighting cyclin inhibitors (cdk4/6) and immunotherapy
• Understanding the disease and having clear ideas regarding the management of patients with advanced luminal, triple negative and HER 2 positive disease. Knowing which treatment should be chosen in each of the situations, both first line and successive

Module 14. Lung Cancer

• Perform an adequate diagnosis and staging of lung cancer, knowing the main diagnostic tests to be performed
• Understand the different stages of lung cancer and to apply the best treatment in each one of them
• Learn about the main studies aimed at lung cancer screening and the target population
• Be able to identify the histological subtypes of lung cancer. Differentiate between large cells and small cells
• Identify the main driver mutations (EGFR, ALK and ROS 1), as well as the role of PDL1. Targeted therapies, both tyrosine kinase inhibitors and immunotherapy. Main indications and toxicity

Module 15. ORL tumours

• Manage the diagnosis and staging of the main ENT tumors
• Learn the most appropriate treatments according to tumor staging and location
• Have an in-depth knowledge of the treatments for metastatic disease, highlighting the most innovative ones, such as immunotherapy

Module 16. Colorectal cancer and anal canal

• Perform an adequate diagnosis and staging of Colorectal Cancer
• Deepen in the indications for Colorectal Cancer screening and the main genetic syndromes that predispose to this disease
• Recognize in depth the different stages of Colon Cancer
• Point out the role of EGFR and the main prognostic factors of Colorectal Cancer
• Understand the most appropriate treatments both in the first line and in successive treatments
• Identify the role of immunotherapy in this setting
• Understand the role of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and the possibility of surgical salvage in colorectal cancer
• Become familiar with anal canal cancer and its main treatments

Module 17. Non-colorectal digestive tumors

• Have an in-depth knowledge of the diagnosis and staging of pancreatic tumors
• Learn how to choose which type of treatment is indicated in each situation
• Be familiar with the main treatments available for metastatic pancreatic cancer, both for first line and successive treatments
• Have an in-depth knowledge of the diagnosis and staging of esophageal and gastric tumors, knowing the main treatments depending on the stage of the tumor
• Guiding the diagnosis and knowing the peculiarities of neuroendocrine tumors, knowing how to differentiate between secretory and non-secretory tumors. And know in depth the available treatments for this entity, highlighting the role of radionuclides
  Be familiar with the tests performed in the diagnosis of biliary tract tumors, staging and treatment

Module 18. Gynecologic Tumors

• Learn in depth about the different gynecological tumors
• Be aware of the role of BRCA in ovarian cancer and its therapeutic implications
• Know how to differentiate a platinum-sensitive patient from a non-platinum-sensitive patient
• Be familiar with the indications of PARP inhibitors

Module 19. Urological tumors

• Be able to treat urological tumors in each of their stages. Emphasizing the treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors and immunotherapy in renal cancer
• Know the BRAF mutation and its therapeutic implications
• Deepen in the treatment of melanoma in advanced stages
• Master the indications of immunotherapy and the combination of BRAF and MEK inhibitors

Module 20. Sarcomas and melanomas

• Understand the different types of mesenchymal tumors, both soft tissue sarcoma, bone sarcoma and the peculiarities of GIST tumor
• Learn the indications of adjuvant treatment for each one of them
• Know the first line and successive treatments, both in soft tissue and bone sarcomas and GIST

Module 21. Brain Tumors

• Learn about the role of immunotherapy in brain tumors
• Have an in-depth knowledge of the main brain tumors
• Distinguish them according to the molecular pattern
• Understand the most important prognostic factors

Module 22. Radiotherapy

• Understand the basics of radiotherapy treatment
• Learn the volumes to be treated and their names
• Determine the fundamental role of radiotherapy treatment in oncology
• Be familiar with the indications for radiotherapy treatment in breast cancer, lung cancer, ENT tumors, prostate cancer and digestive tumors
• Become familiar with the role of radiotherapy in less common tumors

Module 23. Characterization and Fields of Application of Psycho-Oncology

• Provide the necessary clinical knowledge of oncological disorders, epidemiology, etiology, risk factors, processes and diagnostic tests
• Train in the design and implementation of health promotion and cancer prevention and early detection programs
• Be able to argue about the area of study and the profession
• Identify the social needs of people with cancer and their families
• Analyze the influence of the perceived social support in cancer

Module 24. Psychological Treatments in Cancer and Third Generation Therapies

• Determine realistic treatment objectives together with the patient and/or their family
• Undergo training in the methods of intervention with cancer patients, especially empirically supported treatment techniques
• Identify those somatic symptoms and/or psychological alterations that are perceived by the patient as a threat
• Detect and enhance, as far as possible, the patient's own resources

Module 25. Most Relevant Psychological Aspects According to Different Tumor Locations

• Identify those somatic symptoms and/or psychological alterations that are perceived by the patient as a threat
• Compensate for, eliminate or attenuate such symptoms, symptom control
• Detect and enhance, as far as possible, the patient's own resources
• Facilitating adaptation to the disease during the biomedical treatment process (affecting anxiety, anguish, side effects of chemotherapy, phobias of radiotherapy devices, sexual dysfunctions and also hospital admissions)
• Encourage active coping styles
• Facilitate therapeutic adherence to medical treatment

Module 26. Protocols for Emotional Intervention at the End of Life

• Perform preventive care actions for the family according to the stages of the disease
• Address conflicts that may arise as a result of different socio-cultural beliefs and values between the team and the patient-family binomial
• Recognize and respond to spiritual distress and know how to refer the patient to the appropriate professional
• Develop appropriate assessments of the overall importance of the patient's spiritual beliefs and religious practices
• Manage the attitudes and responses of patients, caregivers and professionals derived from the professional-patient relationship
• Know how to intervene in particularly complex family situations
• Be able to work in cooperative groups and multi-professional teams

Module 27. Evaluation and Measurement Instruments

• Evaluate the complex psychological problems
• Apply assessment procedures and instruments for specific symptoms
• Acquire the training and practice to conduct quality of life assessment; plan the assessment and use specific instruments, conduct functional analysis, case formulation and reporting
• Assess family threats, needs and resources, and know how to apply family assessment tools
• Manage comprehensive assessment tools in palliative and end-of-life care

Module 28. Communication with the Oncologic Patient

• Work with a Patient-Centered Psychology
• Appropriately handle difficult situations and dealing with bad news
• Prevent and detect communication problems (e.g., pact of silence) and enhance family members' resources and strategies
• Manage the most complex communication difficulties
• Reflect critically on one's own attitudes and communication skills, identifying elements for continuous improvement during the care process

Module 29. Grief Management

• Prevent the onset of complicated grief prior to death as much as possible
• Continue to prevent the onset of complicated grief after the death, providing emotional support and the tools that help the person to say goodbye to their loved one
• Provide guidance in carrying out bereavement tasks
• Develop the capacity for empathy, listening and compassion that allows us to be in tune with the patient's pain, without over-involvement and, at the same time, create a sufficiently strong therapeutic bond in the face of difficulties that may arise in the process

Module 30. Other Psychological Interventions in Specific Cancer-Related Areas

• Perform in-depth management of the combined protocol for the smoking withdrawal process and relapse prevention
• Perfect the skills and competencies necessary for the selection, training and supervision of volunteers
• Detect the psychological factors associated with participation in cancer screening and genetic counseling programs, as well as to encourage participation in them by increasing the perception of control
• Analyze the use and some of the advantages of group therapy compared to individual treatment
• Gain in-depth knowledge of psychological preparation programs for the different medical oncological treatments and their side effects
• Be able to identify and mitigate the sequelae that remain in cancer survivors

Module 31. Research in Cancer

• Design, develop and implement a research project
• Formulate scientific research hypotheses
• Analyze results and draw conclusions
• Train in scientific communication of research results
• Establish the ethical limitations of a research project
• Have the ability to apply empirical evidence in patient care
• Gain knowledge of good clinical practice guidelines and ethics committee standards

Module 32. Ethical Aspects in Psycho-Oncology and Psychology of Palliative Care

• Analyze ethical dilemmas in depth and from an interdisciplinary perspective
• Identify bioethical problems in the conduct of professionals, in health care activities or in biomedical research
• Argue decisions in the biomedical field with well-founded ethical value judgments
• Develop expressive and communicative skills on bioethical issues in order to be able to interact in an ethics committee environment

Learn from experts in medical oncology and expand your knowledge in specific areas such as third-generation therapies and communication with the oncology patient”