Deciding which type of research to engage in

[Birdnals]

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A bit about myself: I will be starting medical school this Fall and am going in with a strong interest in oncology due to past research/clinical experiences. I'd ideally like to wind up at an academic, heavy research-influenced residency program. At this point, I am still unsure which area of oncology I would like to pursue, i.e. medical oncology, surgical, rad onc, path, etc. but am leaning towards (again, who knows if/how this could change) rad onc or something surgical because of the procedural aspect of these fields.

Since I have to move for medical school, I will no longer be able to stay on with my current lab. I have already begun reaching out to potential research mentors and received some opportunities to engage in oncology related research. I need help deciding which of these options are best suited for my goals:

1) Clinical research with a surg onc at a university-affiliated cancer center. The hospital is a satellite hospital though and the doc said he doesn't consider himself an academic. Doc attended well-respected residency and fellowship programs.

2) Basic or translational research with a surg onc at a community-based hospital. Doc is a former professor at a reputable university and was referred to be my the doc from option 1 as a "true academic."

3) Basic or translational research with a research scientist at a biomed research facility.

Option three may offer the more interesting research, but I am curious as to whether the PI's lack of academic connections may come into play down the road. Appreciate any help/advice!

 

[WedgeDawg]

I would go with option 1 for several reasons.

1) It's at a university medical center and getting to know faculty who are (presumably) fairly well known in the field

2) It's clinical research which will be easier to get done as a busy medical student and probably be more productive (if you want, you can transition to basic research over the summer, but you're still unlikely to get much done in just a single summer doing basic research - if you really want to do high output basic research during medical school, it might be worth looking into a year-long research fellowship)

3) Surgical oncology, if that is what you decide to do, is much more difficult and competitive path than medical oncology. Surg onc fellowships are one of the most competitive surgical fellowships (I think the most competitive behind peds) and generally require two years of research during residency to be a competitive candidate at good programs. Getting your foot in the door early is never a bad thing should you decide you want to go down that path. However, should you decide that medical oncology is what you want to do, oncology research is oncology research and you'll be in great shape for both because they're so closely related.

Though honestly, I think the clinical research thing trumps everything here as an M1 because you're not going to have the time to get anything worthwhile published in basic research without tagging on to an almost complete project or taking a year off.

Finally, if you're coming from a decent medical school and end up with average+ board scores and decent to good grades, you're basically guaranteed to match to a university IM program which is the main prerequisite to getting into an onc or heme/onc fellowship. Research helps, but you don't have to have a first author paper in PNAS or anything, and these fellowships generally have infolded research as well.

Now, if you decide you want to do surg onc, you'll probably want to aim for one of the "better" (and I use that term loosely to mean highly regarded and/or well known) general surgery residencies that has a track record of putting their graduates into surgical oncology; preferably, you'll want one with a 7 year track that includes 2 years of research rather than one with just 5 years because, as I said, surg onc is a super research heavy surgical field and really likes to see research experience in its applicants. This means that medical school research can help, more so if you're coming from a medical school that doesn't routinely place its graduates into research-heavy general surgery residencies.

So tl;dr - clinical research + connections in field + surgical research means that the first option is likely the best for your career goals

 

[Birdnals]

I would go with option 1 for several reasons.

1) It's at a university medical center and getting to know faculty who are (presumably) fairly well known in the field

2) It's clinical research which will be easier to get done as a busy medical student and probably be more productive (if you want, you can transition to basic research over the summer, but you're still unlikely to get much done in just a single summer doing basic research - if you really want to do high output basic research during medical school, it might be worth looking into a year-long research fellowship)

3) Surgical oncology, if that is what you decide to do, is much more difficult and competitive path than medical oncology. Surg onc fellowships are one of the most competitive surgical fellowships (I think the most competitive behind peds) and generally require two years of research during residency to be a competitive candidate at good programs. Getting your foot in the door early is never a bad thing should you decide you want to go down that path. However, should you decide that medical oncology is what you want to do, oncology research is oncology research and you'll be in great shape for both because they're so closely related.

Though honestly, I think the clinical research thing trumps everything here as an M1 because you're not going to have the time to get anything worthwhile published in basic research without tagging on to an almost complete project or taking a year off.

Finally, if you're coming from a decent medical school and end up with average+ board scores and decent to good grades, you're basically guaranteed to match to a university IM program which is the main prerequisite to getting into an onc or heme/onc fellowship. Research helps, but you don't have to have a first author paper in PNAS or anything, and these fellowships generally have infolded research as well.

Now, if you decide you want to do surg onc, you'll probably want to aim for one of the "better" (and I use that term loosely to mean highly regarded and/or well known) general surgery residencies that has a track record of putting their graduates into surgical oncology; preferably, you'll want one with a 7 year track that includes 2 years of research rather than one with just 5 years because, as I said, surg onc is a super research heavy surgical field and really likes to see research experience in its applicants. This means that medical school research can help, more so if you're coming from a medical school that doesn't routinely place its graduates into research-heavy general surgery residencies.

So tl;dr - clinical research + connections in field + surgical research means that the first option is likely the best for your career goals

WedgeDawg - Appreciate the in-depth response! At this point, I'm more inclined towards rad onc or surg onc (or another surgical specialty) due to the procedural aspect. Of course, my inclinations could always change but that's how I feel right now. I've edited my original post a bit to address some of your points. I have just one follow-up question for you though. The university-affiliated hospital in option 1 is actually more like a satellite location that bears the university name and shares some affiliation. The doc in question attended top training institutions. Do either of these change your opinion or does the clinical research option still carry the trump card due to the reasons you mentioned? Thanks again!

 

[WedgeDawg]

WedgeDawg - Appreciate the in-depth response! At this point, I'm more inclined towards rad onc or surg onc (or another surgical specialty) due to the procedural aspect. Of course, my inclinations could always change but that's how I feel right now. I've edited my original post a bit to address some of your points. I have just one follow-up question for you though. The university-affiliated hospital in option 1 is actually more like a satellite location that bears the university name and shares some affiliation. The doc in question attended top training institutions. Do either of these change your opinion or does the clinical research option still carry the trump card due to the reasons you mentioned? Thanks again!

I would still personally pick clinical over basic or translational right now. You are unlikely to get much done in basic/translation during the school year and the best thing you can do right now to achieve your career goals is do well in your classes. If you decide that you want to do basic research later on, I would highly recommend talking to an advisor in the field at your school about taking a year to do a research fellowship in medical school. Doing basic research well is a significant time investment and you don't want to have to make the transition to medical school with that extra commitment taking away from your time, at least until you figure out a study routine that works. I honestly would wait until at least your first block (or whatever) is over to commit any significant amount of your time to research at all just because it's easier to catch up on research later, but it's hard to repair poor grades or performance (unless your school is true P/F in which case I would still wait until after the first block, but you don't have to be as concerned about your scores).

 

[Birdnals]

I would still personally pick clinical over basic or translational right now. You are unlikely to get much done in basic/translation during the school year and the best thing you can do right now to achieve your career goals is do well in your classes. If you decide that you want to do basic research later on, I would highly recommend talking to an advisor in the field at your school about taking a year to do a research fellowship in medical school. Doing basic research well is a significant time investment and you don't want to have to make the transition to medical school with that extra commitment taking away from your time, at least until you figure out a study routine that works. I honestly would wait until at least your first block (or whatever) is over to commit any significant amount of your time to research at all just because it's easier to catch up on research later, but it's hard to repair poor grades or performance (unless your school is true P/F in which case I would still wait until after the first block, but you don't have to be as concerned about your scores).

Awesome...thanks for the help! I'm lucky that my school actually has a research requirement for the first two years so I'll have some dedicated time to throw towards that. Even still though, I'll probably heed your advice about dedicating too much time to research until I've gotten into the swing of things!