Radiation Oncology - What Do You Guys Learn About It Before Residency?

[radonctherapy]

I'm a radiation therapy student and I was just wondering what kind of information you guys learn about Rad Onc before going into the field. I probably have a lot of bias, but from what I've seen it doesn't seem like you guys know a lot about the stream before coming in? I'm probably wrong, so I'm hoping that someone could correct me or explain more thoroughly. 

[ralk]

I'm a radiation therapy student and I was just wondering what kind of information you guys learn about Rad Onc before going into the field. I probably have a lot of bias, but from what I've seen it doesn't seem like you guys know a lot about the stream before coming in? I'm probably wrong, so I'm hoping that someone could correct me or explain more thoroughly. 

 

There's not much training in radiation oncology in medical school, for the obvious reason that very few physicians become Radiation Oncologists. It's a small field in medicine. Those who intend to enter Radiation Oncology naturally go out of their way to get more exposure. However, they will focus on the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of conditions amenable to radiation therapy, as well as managing the complications of radiation treatment. They won't necessarily be learning the physics or technological details like a radiation therapist will. That information is more relevant to residents in Radiation Oncology than it is to medical students, so that's where it tends to get emphasized.

[Lactic Folly]

Very little. It's not a topic that a general practitioner would need to know much about, since a cancer patient is usually referred to a cancer centre where they will be evaluated, treated, and followed by a multidisciplinary team. Medical students interested in exploring the field would do electives, but these are more to ensure an informed career choice. The actual training in the practice of radiation oncology is left to residency (hence the 5 years + fellowship).

[radonctherapy]

Very little. It's not a topic that a general practitioner would need to know much about, since a cancer patient is usually referred to a cancer centre where they will be evaluated, treated, and followed by a multidisciplinary team. Medical students interested in exploring the field would do electives, but these are more to ensure an informed career choice. The actual training in the practice of radiation oncology is left to residency (hence the 5 years + fellowship).

 

What are the electives like? Is it just more shadowing and watching, or do you actually learn about radiation oncology (GTV, CTV, PTV, etc.) during the elective?

[ralk]

What are the electives like? Is it just more shadowing and watching, or do you actually learn about radiation oncology (GTV, CTV, PTV, etc.) during the elective?

 

Depends on the centre and the interests of the student, but a large component of electives will be clinic work rather than treatment planning. They'll be learning a lot about radiation oncology, but generally learning about the side Radiation Therapists don't get much exposure to - namely the clinic visits before, during, and after radiation treatments are administered. Medical students, unlike radiation therapists, do not graduate as independent practitioners, but rather have a baseline level of general medical knowledge which they then refine and enhance in residency. Towards that end, clinic work is far more valuable than getting into the specialized, detail-oriented job of delineating volumes for treatment itself. A student doing a large number of electives in Rad Onc will undoubtedly get a fair bit of exposure to the general ideas of treatment planning and may start learning the basics of actually doing that work, but the in-depth teaching on that front is more often saved until residency.

 

Basically, a medical student on Rad Onc electives is learning plenty about radiation therapy, but with different priorities than a radiation therapist, reflecting their different stages of training and unique roles within radiation oncology.