Oncology

[Angela]

Hi there,

 

If someone is interested in Oncology as a specialty would that mean they would do internal medicine for residency, and specify Oncology? Just curious how that works?

[cupofwater]

you could also do surgery and do a fellowship in surgical oncology.

[Satsuma]

You could do a medical oncology fellowship via internal medicine. If you want to do radiation oncology then that is applied to straight from med school.

[cupofwater]

and medical oncology is a fellowship for those who are in internal medicine.

 

radiation oncology is another carms discipline in itself, too.

[Angela]

Thanks for the input on both sugical route and internal medicine;

 

For the internal medicine route, does that mean one would be matched for "hematology/oncology" and then if they would like to specialize say in breast cancer do that after as a fellowship? Similarly, for surgery, would one do "general surgery" the do say a specific cancer type fellowship?

[A-Stark]

For internal, you'd spend the first three years in the general program, probably taking lots of hem/onc electives or selectives. Similarly, surgical oncology would be a fellowship following a general surgery residency, though I imagine such fellowships exist for ENT too.

[ploughboy]

though I imagine such fellowships exist for ENT too.

 

And ob/gyn

[NLengr]

I think most surgical specialties would have a fellowship for malignancies of their particular system/area. There isn't one surgeon who handles breast/prostate/.../brain/GI cancers.

[loving_medicine]

If you want to do medical oncology, that is separate from hematology (they are both different subspecialties through internal medicine). However, if you go through the pediatrics route, then hematology/oncology is one subspecialty.

 

As above, you can do fellowships in ALL of the surgical specialties/subspecialties in oncology (including gyencology) if you prefer the surgical route vs. radiation/chemotherapy.

 

Recently, I found out that you can do an R3 year in family medicine at the University of Ottawa in medical oncology! and actually practice as a medical oncologist (vs. going through 3 years of internal first). Sounds like another ER kinda thing that is only available in Ottawa currently, but probably will flourish across the country if it works out well.

[physiology]

GP --> extra one year for GP-oncology

 

Surgery ---> extra 1-3 years for surg onc

 

Gyne --> 1-2 year fellowship for gyne onc

 

Internal medicine --> med onc; 3-4 years, then 2 year fellowship;

 

Peds --> Peds heme/ onc; 3-4 years general pediatrics, then 2 year fellowship

 

5 years of rad onc.