Using the "Hallmarks of Cancer" as a framework for medical students and clinicians to understand oncogenesis.

Two landmark reviews in 2000 and 2011, describing the "Hallmarks of Cancer", provided a new and valuable framework for understanding the process of oncogenesis as a progressive accumulation of characteristics, each characteristic essential for a tumor to become a clinically relevant, metastatic neoplasia. The process of oncogenesis is conceptually important for physicians, both for clinical reasons, and for their engagement in oncological research. However, these reviews are written for specialists in the field, which presents barriers for novice learners. Therefore, to allow students, and also clinicians external to the oncological field, to access this valuable framework for understanding oncogenesis, we have created a condensed summary of the original reviews. Our institutions use a "flipped" approach to the large-group components of our preclinical education. We have successfully used our Hallmarks of Cancer summary as the prework for sessions on oncogenesis for five years at one institution, and nine years at the other, typically at the end of cancer blocks within integrated, multidisciplinary courses. We report here survey results indicating learners strongly appreciate the summary as both preparation material for participation in relevant flipped classroom sessions, and as a general review of oncogenesis. This condensed summary of the original Hallmarks of Cancer reviews makes many of the key concepts of oncogenesis available to medical students in their preclinical years, as well as to physicians outside the field of oncology.

Vitamin D insufficiency in male osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis is an important public health issue among men, affecting up to 20% of all men in the United States >50 years of age. The social and economic costs of male osteoporosis are profound but can be minimized by a preventive approach, including early identification and treatment of men at risk for this potentially crippling disease. As part of this preventive approach, clinicians should screen susceptible patients for vitamin D deficiency, a commonly occurring, highly correctable risk factor for osteoporosis. Appropriate detection of vitamin D deficiency in men at risk for osteoporosis and adequate correction of this deficiency will significantly reduce morbidity and mortality associated with male osteoporosis.