MSc in Precision Cancer Medicine

The MSc in Precision Cancer Medicine is a two-year, part-time, online course, designed for working professionals. The course aims to provide a broad training in the scientific and clinical disciplines involved in precision medicine. 

The MSc leadership team is comprised of two Course Directors and a Course Teaching Fellow:

• Professor Sarah Wordsworth , University Research Lecturer, Health Economics Research Centre, Nuffield Department of Population Health.
• Professor Anna Schuh, Director of Molecular Diagnostics, and Honorary Consultant Haematologist, Department of Oncology.
• Dr Sevasti Zervou,  Director of Studies and Teaching Fellow, Department of Oncology

What is the course about?

Precision medicine is an emerging approach which takes into account variability in the biology, environment, and lifestyle for each individual person to help guide disease diagnosis and treatment. In particular, genetic and genomic data allow us to go beyond conventional histopathological assessment, and classify cancer into distinct sub-entities that guide our choice of the right treatment to the right patient at the right time.

In order to make precision medicine a reality, the clinical development of diagnostics and therapeutics need to go hand in hand. Future leaders, whether in research or in the clinic, will need a broad understanding of the field and an ability to work with a range of stakeholders.

The new MSc in Precision Cancer Medicine was conceived to meet this need and was developed by Professor Sarah Wordsworth, (Nuffield Department of Population Health), and Professor Anna Schuh, (Department of Oncology). The vision for the course is to equip our graduates with a multi-disciplinary understanding, beyond their own area of expertise, and to prepare them for leadership roles at the forefront of cancer medicine.

You will study cancer genomics and pathology, omics techniques, diagnostics, experimental therapeutics, onco-immunology, bioinformatics, ethics and health economics.

Who is the course for?

The MSc is designed for professionals from a variety of backgrounds with an interest in genomics and precision medicine in cancer. Our students will be working in all stages of target discovery, drug development, translation into practice, and health policy. The course will appeal to practicing clinicians and pharmacists at all stages of their career, and academics and industry staff from medical specialists to practitioners in health economics, ethics, bio-informatics and biology.

 The course is delivered in collaboration with academics from the following research centres at Oxford:

• Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, Nuffield Department of Medicine
• Oxford Molecular Diagnostics Centre
• Radcliffe Department of Medicine
• Ethox Centre, Nuffield Department of Population Health
• Health Economics Research Centre, Nuffield Department of Population Health
• Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences
• Department of Biological and Medical Sciences, Oxford Brookes University