Advise needed. Pharmd or PhD

[IDKwhat2PutHere]

Im Sure the subject has been covered in full but I'm asking for advice a little more tailored to my situation.

Hey guy, so Im 30 years old married with 3 kids under 4 years old. My oldest daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor called AT/RT two and half years ago. She is doing great by the way. After spending two years basically living at MD Anderson I have decided I want to get involved with the cancer fight by going to school.
I am now 3 semesters in and I'm loving it.
At this point Im leaning towards oncology pharmacy at a hospital, but there is a strong pull to the research side as well. From what I have gathered I cant do both, and I would have to pick my direction soon.
My question is is there a place for cancer research with a pharmd or would I be wasting my time? Can you work in a hospital setting with a PhD? Working in any field where I can have a small impact on cancer is the end goal, being that it tried to take my baby away from me.
Maybe pharmacy is the wrong direction all together, but Im not interested in MD.

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[Lnsean]

Im Sure the subject has been covered in full but I'm asking for advice a little more tailored to my situation.

Hey guy, so Im 30 years old married with 3 kids under 4 years old. My oldest daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor called AT/RT two and half years ago. She is doing great by the way. After spending two years basically living at MD Anderson I have decided I want to get involved with the cancer fight by going to school.
I am now 3 semesters in and I'm loving it.
At this point Im leaning towards oncology pharmacy at a hospital, but there is a strong pull to the research side as well. From what I have gathered I cant do both, and I would have to pick my direction soon.
My question is is there a place for cancer research with a pharmd or would I be wasting my time? Can you work in a hospital setting with a PhD? Working in any field where I can have a small impact on cancer is the end goal, being that it tried to take my baby away from me.
Maybe pharmacy is the wrong direction all together, but Im not interested in MD.

I'm actually in a similar situation where cancer took away one of my parents early many years ago. Ever since I've had a really strong inclination to be at the forefront and tackle this field head-on. The difference is that I've always had a strong interest in healthcare and medicine. Like you, I am also in my early 30s with a family and other obligations as well. If your desire is as strong, I feel that an MD is the only way for you to really get out there and help patients overcome this nasty ordeal while also giving you opportunities to conduct research and maybe manage clinical trials and such. As for being an oncology pharmacist, it's a viable path but you may feel that the impact you'll make won't be as great or enough....it's the middle option...where you're not specialized for research while clinically you're also very limited....I don't think this is the right path either.

I will say that....since you are 30...then you must surely know the reasons for why you want to pursue this. The time to experiment was your late teens and early 20s. Whether it is MD, pharmD or PhD...these are all serious commitments in terms of time, money, and opportunity cost. I get the sense that MD would best fit what you're looking for and the mission you want to serve but with 3 kids and a family (maybe mortgage and car), it may be very hard. Your only other option would be research with PhD. I think all 3 will have roughly the same kind of time commitment: 3-4 years of schooling + publication/research/residencies.

 

[exiangwsu]

I would say pharmacy. But actually both has pro and con. The pro side of phd would be is no tuition and U get a stipend. The con side is that the time is infinite and saturation. You can spend 5 to 10 year finishing your degree without getting a job.
Pharmacy on the contrary you do spend finite of time 4 years to get ur degree. The con side is expense and saturation. Not a lot of pharmacist can involve with research.

Since you r 30, I would say why not try pharmacy if you can get into a strong research school such as ucsf. We have the pharm science pathway allowed us to participate in drug design and clinical trial. Many of advisor are pharmd and very well respected researcher. They run trial for vaccination and cancer drug. They are my role model how pharmd can also be successful PI.

But if you can not get into the a pharm school offer great research opportunities, I would definitely just apply for phd. It seems you passion is research.

 

[koercive]

Have you looked into oncology residency opportunities or industry/academic fellowships after the PharmD?

For the latter, I know a few folks who have found roles in the industry working in clinical trials or bench research with 2 years of fellowship after a Pharmd


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[Humble Sloth]

Im Sure the subject has been covered in full but I'm asking for advice a little more tailored to my situation.

Hey guy, so Im 30 years old married with 3 kids under 4 years old. My oldest daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor called AT/RT two and half years ago. She is doing great by the way. After spending two years basically living at MD Anderson I have decided I want to get involved with the cancer fight by going to school.
I am now 3 semesters in and I'm loving it.
At this point Im leaning towards oncology pharmacy at a hospital, but there is a strong pull to the research side as well. From what I have gathered I cant do both, and I would have to pick my direction soon.
My question is is there a place for cancer research with a pharmd or would I be wasting my time? Can you work in a hospital setting with a PhD? Working in any field where I can have a small impact on cancer is the end goal, being that it tried to take my baby away from me.
Maybe pharmacy is the wrong direction all together, but Im not interested in MD.

if you really want to help mankind go into a phD. PharmD's don't do research. They do "clinical trials" which is bullsh_t soft science non-original research.

 

[RxRunner]

The PharmD / PhD question, as a parent, I would consider that PhD students pay no tuition and get paid (a little) and PharmD students only pay.

 

[exiangwsu]

My dad has a phd in medicinal chemistry. Although PHD pay no tuition, it take them a long time to graduate. Even after graduating, they will have hard time to support family with their post doc salary. Industrial or academia job is extremely competitive. The phd market is bleak in the field of science and saturated with foreign graduates.......

It like pick ur poison sort of type question. If i could, I would recommend neither a phd or pharmd. I would gamble on pharmd just because there r more options and likelihood of finding a job is slight higher. MD is best bet to do clinical trial.