This program's mission is to provide students with:

  • Advanced knowledge in current concepts in molecular, cellular, and genetic processes that contribute to the development and treatment of cancer
  • Specialized training in experimental methodology used to study cancer in a laboratory setting
  • Required shadowing of clinical oncologists to help identify clinically-relevant research questions leading to projects with a potential impact on cancer patients

Learn about our program's curriculum

Curriculum Overview

The Graduate College requires the satisfactory completion of 72 semester hours in order to obtain a Ph.D.

Required Courses

For the first year, students take common courses with other Biomedical Science students.

Cancer is a term that encompasses over 210 different types of malignancies, each with a unique set of biological, etiological, and clinical features. Cancer researchers continue to widen their scope as more is learned, requiring a breadth of knowledge in many areas of research (e.g. cell biology, genetics, immunology, and cell metabolism) to understand the complexities of cancer etiology and treatment.

The Cancer Biology Program provides this knowledge through classroom and research training leading to a PhD degree, and preparing students for a variety of career paths in academic, clinical, and industry environments dealing with the study and/or treatment of cancer.

A campus visual from the Carver College of Medicine outdoor lawn space.

Ready to apply?

You can learn more about the application process and requirements here.

Events

REDCap Data Handling

Thursday, September 10, 2026 10:00am to 11:00am
Virtual

This is the sixth and final step in the REDCap training series. In this training we won't use REDCap at all. Instead, we will cover ways to view and manage your exported REDCap data in Microsoft Excel and Sublime Text such as:

Populating data from one Excel sheet to another with vlookup()

Seeing specific data with column sorting and filtering

Ensuring data is cohesive by creating tables

Looking at how data relates to other data by creating pivot tables

Transforming unusable data to a usable format...

Science Thursdays Blood Drive  promotional image

Science Thursdays Blood Drive

Thursday, September 10, 2026 11:00am to 3:00pm
Medical Education Research Facility
The DeGowin Blood Center is hosting a blood drive from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday, September 10th, 2026 at the MERF atrium. Help the University of Iowa climb the Abbott & Big Ten We Give Blood Drive leaderboard and received a special-edition t-shirt from Abbott, while supplies last!

Internal Medicine Grand Rounds 9/10/2026

Thursday, September 10, 2026 12:00pm to 1:00pm
General Hospital

Studying the Care We Actually Deliver: Advancing Health Services Research in the Department of Internal Medicine
Michihiko Goto, MD, MS, FACP