Targeted therapy
Open your materials, follow the steps, then turn in your work.
Explain how targeted therapy attacks specific molecules so it spares more healthy cells.
1. Open your materials
Use the materials named in the first step below. Open lesson resources.
2. Start the work
Read the targeted-therapy notes in the PLTW course shell and find the molecule each drug targets.
Show all 5 required steps
- Read the targeted-therapy notes in the PLTW course shell and find the molecule each drug targets.
- Compare a targeted drug to broad chemotherapy in a two-column table.
- Mark which patients qualify based on a tumor marker in the sample case data.
- Write one reason targeted therapy can fail when a tumor mutates.
- Add your targeted-therapy comparison to your Unit 3 PLTW tracker evidence.
Lost your place? Reopen today's Targeted therapy record. Find the last completed evidence ID, check it against the claim ceiling, and continue with the first unfinished step rather than restarting the whole task.
Check your work before submitting
- You'll be able to describe how targeted therapy differs from broad chemotherapy.
- You'll be able to explain why a tumor marker decides who qualifies.
Before lab work: read the safety rules
- Wear the required PPE, keep the bench clear, handle equipment only as directed, and know where the eyewash, sink, and spill kit are before you start.
- Human samples and data stay private: label with a code, never a name, and dispose of materials in the correct waste container, then wash your hands.
3. Turn in your work
DueCheck Schoology- Hand in
- Two-column table comparing targeted therapy and chemotherapy, with qualifying-patient markup and resistance explanation.
How to submit and name your file
Use the submission route shown on today's page.
In Schoology, open your course and the assignment for this lesson. Attach your file, select Submit, and check that it appears in the submission.
PDF upload helpYou get two school days for every day you were absent, so this deadline moves with you.
Find this lesson's Schoology assignments
These are existing assignments for your section. Follow the directions in the assignment you are working on; this list does not add new work. Check Schoology for each deadline.
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How this lesson connects
Keep using what you learned last class: Cancer diagnosis and treatment planning integrate tissue or molecular findings, stage, tumor features, overall health, benefits, and harms; no single classroom image or marker determines the complete decision. Today: Cancer diagnosis and treatment planning integrate tissue or molecular findings, stage, tumor features, overall health, benefits, and harms; no single classroom image or marker determines the complete decision.
Optional: listen or watch a unit review▸
Need help? Warm-up, timing, and directions▸
💡 Big idea: diagnosis and treatment planning integrate or molecular findings, stage, features, overall health, benefits, and harms; no single classroom image or marker determines the complete decision.
- 0-10Read targeted-therapy notes; identify molecule each drug targets
- 10-28Build two-column comparison table: targeted vs. broad
- 28-45Work through sample case data; mark qualifying patients by marker
- 45-58Write resistance explanation ( disrupts the target)
- 58-72Add comparison table to PLTW tracker; note evidence slot
- 72-80Class debrief: who did NOT qualify and why
- • is a blunt instrument; is a guided missile.
- • The guidance system is a molecular marker unique to that patient's .
- • Today you will decide which patients qualify for and why resistance happens.
- • Molecular and genetic technology is the biggest single category on the 072130 WebXam.
- • Targeted drugs bind specific proteins or gene products overexpressed in cells.
- • A marker test determines whether a patient's has the molecular target.
- • Acquired resistance occurs when cells mutate the targeted molecule.
PLTW connection and today's work
Open Activity 3.4.1 Precision Medicine in myPLTW for Lesson 3.4 Building a Better Cancer Treatment and build your targeted-therapy comparison table.
Today's stopping point: Chemo/radiation CER should be done (Wednesday); targeted-therapy table due today.
PLTW activity titles identify the course connection. If your account will not open, use the posted materials for today and tell Mr. Mendoza. Do not mark an online activity complete unless you completed it.
Use the turn-in directions at the top of this page. Do not create a second submission unless your teacher asks for one.
Show another explanation or a smaller first step
Need help? Choose a starting point
Finish the assigned lab safely before starting extra practice.
Lesson resources: reading, slides, and vocabulary▸
The deck carries the prior idea forward, lets you inspect an analogy, maps the rule to biology, and ends with the same evidence decision and exit ticket used on this page.
Generated from this lesson's canonical data with a red-team citation check.
diagnosis and treatment planning integrate or molecular findings, stage, features, overall health, benefits, and harms; no single classroom image or marker determines the complete decision.
diagnosis and treatment planning integrate or molecular findings, stage, features, overall health, benefits, and harms; no single classroom image or marker determines the complete decision.
A smoke alarm detects signs of fire but can also react to burnt toast.
- What does the alarm detect?
- What creates a false alarm?
- What evidence is needed before declaring a fire?
A screening signal changes what to investigate next; it does not automatically prove the cause.
Biomedical tests have measured performance and biological sampling limits that a household alarm does not capture.
- • Alarm signal maps to a test result.
- • Burnt toast maps to a .
- • Inspection maps to confirmation or the next test.
Driving question: Explain how attacks specific molecules so it spares more healthy cells.
What you already know: diagnosis and treatment planning integrate or molecular findings, stage, features, overall health, benefits, and harms; no single classroom image or marker determines the complete decision.
New idea: diagnosis and treatment planning integrate or molecular findings, stage, features, overall health, benefits, and harms; no single classroom image or marker determines the complete decision.
Visual or model: F1. F1. A lesson illustration or teaching diagram for Targeted therapy. Use it with E1-E3; it is a model or context image, not experimental or patient data. What to notice: Trace the labeled testing, treatment, or biological process and identify where evidence limits the decision.
- Observe or measure the relevant feature in .
- Organize the observation with a stable evidence ID.
- Apply this rule: A screening signal changes what to investigate next; it does not automatically prove the cause.
- Choose the option the evidence supports and state the limit of the conclusion.
Real biomedical example: Today the medical interventions team uses to make a bounded evidence decision. The composite classroom case cannot support a real diagnosis, stage, prognosis, or treatment recommendation.
What the evidence supports: E1-E3 and F1 support the daily take-home when the response meets the stated success criteria.
What it cannot prove: The package does not support claims beyond this lesson's or any real patient diagnosis.
- • : A medical procedure that removes a small sample of from the body so it can be examined under a microscope for disease such as .
- • staging: Classifying how far a has grown and spread, which guides treatment choices and predicts likely outcomes.
- • : Treatment that uses powerful drugs to kill rapidly dividing cells throughout the body, though it can also harm some fast-growing healthy cells.
- • radiation: Energy that travels as waves or particles; in medicine it can image inside the body or destroy harmful cells like .
- • : A treatment that attacks specific molecules cancer cells rely on, harming those cells while sparing more healthy cells than older .
- • : Programmed, controlled cell death that the body uses on purpose, including to clear the seam between two tissues during .
- • : An unintended effect of a medicine or treatment that happens in addition to its intended benefit, ranging from mild to serious.
Use it now: Choose one decision option. Cite E1 and E3, then explain how the rule connects the evidence to your choice.
Go further, optional: The source links below are optional enrichment. Every fact required for today's local evidence decision appears in this lesson package.
National Institute is the source this lesson's claim is checked against: How Cancer Is Diagnosed
Limit: The composite classroom case cannot support a real diagnosis, stage, prognosis, or treatment recommendation.
A screening signal changes what to investigate next; it does not automatically prove the cause.
Limit: Biomedical tests have measured performance and biological sampling limits that a household alarm does not capture.
You can describe how differs from broad .
Limit: E3 defines the classroom product or success criterion. It is not independent scientific evidence and cannot justify a clinical or causal claim.
PLTW-GEND-2026-11-23 · Simulated classroom evidence scenario
Your role: medical interventions team member
Decision: Your team must decide what the evidence from supports before submitting the labeled and result claim named on today's page.
- • Explain that attacks specific molecules, so the marker result tells you who qualifies for that drug.
- • Recommend once your write-up explains how the drug works, since a thorough answer reads as a supported one.
- • Keep the recommendation inside the classroom case, because it lacks the stage, features, and health data real planning needs.
Response: State one choice, cite at least two evidence IDs, explain the rule that connects them, and add one limitation. Submit it as the labeled and result claim.
Claim ceiling: Today's evidence supports a classroom claim about . It cannot prove causation, diagnose a real patient, or justify action outside this room.
Reason for review: Your team must decide what the evidence from supports before submitting the labeled and result claim named on today's page.
Context: Today the medical interventions team uses to make a bounded evidence decision. The composite classroom case cannot support a real diagnosis, stage, prognosis, or treatment recommendation.
- • T1: Read the targeted-therapy notes in the PLTW course shell and find the molecule each drug targets.
- • T2: Compare a targeted drug to broad in a two-column table.
- • T3: Mark which patients qualify based on a marker in the sample case data.
- • T4: Write one reason can fail when a mutates.
- • T5: Add your targeted-therapy comparison to your Unit 3 PLTW tracker evidence.
- • E1: National Institute is the source this lesson's claim is checked against: How Cancer Is Diagnosed
- • E2: A screening signal changes what to investigate next; it does not automatically prove the cause.
- • E3: You can describe how differs from broad .
Measurements: Use only the measurements, units, graph, or counts supplied in today's task. No additional patient measurement is implied.
Figure finding: Teaching diagram for . Trace the labeled testing, treatment, or biological process and identify where evidence limits the decision. This is a teaching model, not patient or experimental data.
Uncertainty: This is a composite classroom scenario. Missing history, measurements, or confirmation tests remain unknown and limit the conclusion.
Rate or percent = part / comparison total x 100%. Percent change = (new - comparison) / comparison x 100%.
If 18 of 60 records meet a condition, the frequency is 18 / 60 x 100% = 30%.
Name the comparison total. A percent describes the supplied group and does not automatically predict an individual's outcome.
Use today's supplied counts to calculate one rate, risk, frequency, or percent change. Show the denominator and interpretation.
Students often think A polished answer about is trustworthy even when its evidence source, comparison, or limitation is missing.. The trap: Presentation quality cannot raise the evidence level. The composite classroom case cannot support a real diagnosis, stage, prognosis, or treatment recommendation.
Targeted therapy comparison (sample)
Feature | Targeted therapy | Broad chemotherapy
What it acts on | One specific protein the tumor overproduces | Any cell that is dividing quickly
Who it can work for | Only patients whose tumor carries that target | Not restricted by a molecular target
How eligibility is decided | A marker test run on the tumor tissue | Stage, tumor features, and overall health
Healthy tissue affected | Mainly cells that also carry the target, so fewer | Hair follicles, gut lining, bone marrow
How it stops working | The tumor mutates the target so the drug no longer fits | Tumor cells develop broader survival changes
Who qualifies in the sample case:
Patient A, marker positive. The tumor overexpresses the target protein, so the drug has something to bind and this patient qualifies.
Patient B, marker negative. Does not qualify. Giving the drug anyway would carry its side effects with none of its benefit, because there is nothing in that tumor for it to bind.
One reason targeted therapy can fail: a tumor is not one uniform population. If a small group of cells already carries an altered version of the target, the drug clears everything around them and leaves those cells the room to grow, so the cancer returns resistant to the drug that worked the first time.
The line I want to remember: the marker test is not paperwork that happens before treatment, it is the reason the treatment can work at all.
| Feature | Targeted therapy | Broad chemotherapy |
|---|---|---|
| Acts on | One specific overproduced protein | Any fast-dividing cell |
| Eligibility | Tumor marker test | Stage and overall health |
| Healthy tissue hit | Mainly target-carrying cells | Hair, gut lining, bone marrow |
| How it fails | Target mutates so the drug cannot bind | Broader survival changes |
This model shows the level of evidence and organization needed to complete: Completes the targeted-therapy task: a two-column comparison against broad chemotherapy, the marker result that decides who qualifies in the sample case, and one reason the therapy can stop working.
- Name the variables and include units.
- Enter observations without changing the raw values.
- Check labels, calculations, and patterns before interpreting the data.
Keep the structure. Replace the question, facts, measurements, and evidence. Then recheck units, vocabulary, and whether the conclusion goes beyond the evidence.
Also due today: Add the comparison table and both qualification decisions to your Unit 3 PLTW tracker, and submit it on Schoology.
- CER:
- Claim, Evidence, Reasoning: make a claim, back it with evidence, explain your reasoning.
- SOP:
- Standard Operating Procedure, the exact steps to follow (especially in a lab).
- Tracker:
- Your PLTW progress log where you record completed evidence.
- myPLTW:
- The PLTW course site where you do the online activities. Find it in Clever with your Microsoft sign-in, right next to Schoology.
Tap the speaker to hear a term. Add two of these to your notebook glossary with a definition and an example in your own words.
Pick just 2 or 3 words from today and make them yours: write what each one means in your own words, name the context clue or evidence that helped, then give one example from what you actually did in Targeted therapy. Try your own words first; the glossary is there if you get stuck. This is voluntary and counts as extra credit, so keep it short.
Saved on this device. Show Mr. Mendoza or add these to your notebook glossary to claim the extra credit.
Classroom documents for this lesson are posted in Schoology. Open Clever, then Schoology, and find each one by the name shown on its card.
Open this when the class reaches this activity and use it to complete the required lesson artifact.
Placement rationale
Matched treatment and therapeutic choices by path:Medical-Interventions/Unit-3_How-to-Conquer-Cancer/3.3_Treating-Cancer; keywords:, radiation, cancer. Score 146. Visibility: student-schoology (student-facing resource; link through Schoology rather than local path).
Use this if you were absent, got stuck, or need another pass before you submit the lesson artifact.
Placement rationale
Matched treatment and therapeutic choices by path:Medical-Interventions/Unit-3_How-to-Conquer-Cancer/3.4_Building-a-Better-Cancer-Treatment; keywords:treatment, cancer. Score 142. Visibility: student-schoology (student-facing resource; link through Schoology rather than local path).
Sign in to Clever with your district Microsoft account to open Schoology or myPLTW. Follow today's posted steps. If myPLTW will not open, use the posted alternative and tell Mr. Mendoza. Turn in your completed work through the Schoology assignment.
Practice: try a question, then check your answer▸
Claim ceiling for this check: Today's evidence supports a classroom claim about . It cannot prove causation, diagnose a real patient, or justify action outside this room.
A student makes a certain conclusion about Targeted therapy from one classroom result. What must the student add before the conclusion is defensible?
Write an answer and pick a confidence to unlock the key.
Fast retrieval with instant answers, not the commit-then-reveal check above. Try each from memory first: write what you remember about the earlier units, then check yourself here.
Missed class or ready for more?▸
Run this before you touch the bench. It is built from the real lab procedure, so the decisions you make here are the ones you will make with the equipment in your hands. This lesson has more than one, and they cover different skills.
Tomorrow is a wet lab with live yeast and a UV exposure. Before then: reread your aseptic technique checklist from 29 September, because you are spreading two cultures that must not mix. Come with a rough idea of how you would set up a fair comparison between a strain that can repair DNA damage and one that cannot. You write the procedure yourself tomorrow and it has to be approved before you touch a plate.
Finish the checklist before you handle any material.
- • Wear the required PPE, keep the bench clear, handle equipment only as directed, and know where the eyewash, sink, and spill kit are before you start.
- • Human samples and data stay private: label with a code, never a name, and dispose of materials in the correct waste container, then wash your hands.
- 1Before materials are handled, identify the purpose, variables or comparison, controls, measurement units, and stop-work condition.
- 2Read the targeted-therapy notes in the PLTW course shell and find the molecule each drug targets.
- 3Compare a targeted drug to broad chemotherapy in a two-column table.
- 4Mark which patients qualify based on a tumor marker in the sample case data.
- 5Write one reason targeted therapy can fail when a tumor mutates.
- 6Add your targeted-therapy comparison to your Unit 3 PLTW tracker evidence.
- 7Record each result in the prepared table before interpreting it. Mark missing, repeated, or invalid results truthfully.
- 8Complete the named cleanup and waste route, remove PPE safely, wash hands when required, and confirm the station is ready for the next group.
| Trial or sample ID | Independent condition | Measured result with units | Observation before interpretation | Quality-control note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Before the procedure, predict the result and cite the rule behind the prediction.
After the procedure, compare the result with the prediction and name one limitation or source of uncertainty.
What today's skills lead to. These are real health-science careers this course builds toward. Tap one to see, on the US Department of Labor's O*NET site, what the job actually involves, what it pays, and how fast it is growing.
Today is individual work you can do from home: complete the same target above, then submit your Data table.
Go to Schoology to turn this in. Submit one PDF. Put your first and last name in the document header. Name the file: FirstName LastName - Assignment Title - YYYY-MM-DD.pdf. If you cannot get in, see Mr. Mendoza. Do not skip the work.
Class still runs. Complete the online activity above (it's self-guided). Need the concept taught without a teacher? Use this authoritative explainer:
National Cancer Institute: Types of cancer treatmentYou've passed Unit 2, so the optional extra-credit track is open. Complete reserved-unit work from home, including virtual labs, for extra credit. Each item shows its correct submission route.
Open the extra-credit track- CompleteEvery required part of the artifact is present, nothing left blank.
- AccurateThe science and the data are correct and match the evidence.
- Scientific reasoningYou explain your claim with evidence and reasoning (CER), not just an answer.
- Professional communicationClear, organized, labeled, and written the way a clinician or scientist would.
- SubmittedGo to Schoology to turn this in. Submit one PDF. Put your first and last name in the document header. Name the file: FirstName LastName - Assignment Title - YYYY-MM-DD.pdf. If you cannot get in, see Mr. Mendoza. Do not skip the work.
- Error analysis and method · counts doubleName a specific limit of the method and how it moved your result, and compare what you predicted to what happened. "Human error" does not count; say what about the procedure or instrument caused it.
This week
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