As you are aware one of the requirements of this class is to compose a term paper on any topic relating to cancer that was not formally covered in this class.

Choosing a topic:

Selection of an appropriate topic is perhaps the most challenging aspect of this assignment. However, selection a good topic will help save you time in the library. A topic should meet three criteria:

Your topic should be of interest to you personally (ask yourself, "What aspect of cancer am I interested in that was not covered in the lecture series";

Your topic should be related to cancer in some way; and

Your topic should be one that has readily available and relevant information written about it in some type of scientific literature;

You must pick a specific subtopic within a type of cancer (NOTE: writing a "report" on a type of cancer is unacceptable and will result in a failing grade).

Obtaining scientific material:

Once you have selected a topic your next step is to find relevant scientific literature on the subject matter. Appropriate scientific literature for this paper will include recognized scientific journals. These include journals such as Nature, Science, Scientific American, Cancer Research, Discover, Science News, etc.(NOTE: Do not use articles from press related magazines such as TIME, Newsweek, etc. and Newspapers will not count as a source). One of your bibliographic citations may be obtained from scientific web sites on the WWW. If you choose this option the citation page must be a certified web page of the American Cancer Society or must be associated with the American Cancer Society (in which case the ACS logo will appear on the page).

Requirements of the paper:

The paper must include the following criteria in order to receive full credit:

1. Cover sheet with your name, the class, your section time, Dr. Troncale's name, and the date;
2. Typed using an acceptable font size (10 or 12);
3. Double spaced and approx. three full pages;
4. References to all material from other written sources. These should be presented in quotation marks followed by the appropriate citation of the source from the bibliographic information. (ex: "BRCA1 expression was reduced or undetectable in the majority of high–grade, ductal carcinomas, suggesting that absence of BRCA1 may contribute to the pathogenesis of a significant percentage of sporadic breast cancers" (Wilson, et. al., 1999).
5. A bibliography with at least three sources that were used to write the paper. (ex for citation above: Wilson, C.A., Ramos, L., Villaseñor, M. R., Anders, K. H., Press, M. F., Clarke, K., Karlan, B., Chen, J., Scully, R., Livingston, D., Zuch, R. H., Kanter, M. H., Cohen, S., Calzone, F. J., and Slamon, D. J. 1999. Localization of human BRCA1 and its loss in high-grade, non-inherited breast carcinomas. Nature Genetics 21(2):236-240.)
6. Attached to the back of the paper must be three articles described in the bibliography section.
   

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us.

Here are two great databases that you can use to get started. 

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