Partnership in Cancer Research (PCAR)

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Partnership in Cancer Research (PCAR) seeks to provide first and second-year medical students an innovative hands-on cancer research experience in a laboratory, clinical, or community setting. The PCAR experience will serve a class of 12 participants for 10 weeks during the summer. The research experience will be enriched by team-based learning on the molecular and cell biology of cancer alongside clinical simulations and experiences of cancer screening, treatment, and palliation. The overarching goal of the cancer research experiences is to spark the participants’ interest in future careers as cancer clinical specialists and researchers. The program will enhance the training of a workforce to meet the nation’s biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research needs. Individual cancer research projects are where the students spend most of their time. The research will be put into context with weekly active learning sessions on the biology of cancer. Clinical experiences will expose participants to current issues in the treatment and ongoing care of people with cancer; this aspect will also give participants insight into how basic and community-engaged science affect clinical practice and how clinical problems can be turned into research questions. The entrepreneurship program features teams of 3 participants independently proposing marketable cancer research solutions through weekly sessions with entrepreneur mentors. The aims are to: 1) Provide individual medical students an outstanding hands-on experience in cancer research. Students will perform research with one of about 50 different faculty members performing cancer research in basic science, clinical research, or community engaged research. Throughout the course, teams of participants will integrate their research experiences and ideas in the online and in-person mentored “Cure Cancer Entrepreneurship program” . 2) Provide context for participants’ research with team-based learning and clinical exposures. Weekly team-based learning sessions will engage students in learning detailed information on molecular and cellular biology of cancer, as well as principles of community based medicine. Clinical exposure includes hands-on medical simulations of cancer related topics, social media interaction with a moderated patient support group, and a visit to the palliative care clinic that will take up no more than 2 hours per week. 3) Determine program outcomes through rigorous evaluation. Pre and post testing will be used to determine students gain in cancer research knowledge. Surveys will be used to evaluate all aspects of the course content, faculty, and activities. Long term tracking of participants and similar sized cohort of medical students who did not participate in PCAR will be used to investigate efficacy in influencing career choice in cancer research.