Describing Rad Onc

[PLT]

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Hi there,

I'm mostly curious what y'all call yourselves. I would guess that 95% of the people I tell I'm interested in "Radiation oncology" think I am going to be a radiologist.

I've recently switched to saying "oncologist" and discovered that most people ask a followup question of "and what's that?", which explains why they only hear the "radiation" part of the full title.

It seems belittling to say "cancer doctor" and a mouthful to say "I treat cancers with radiation", just wondering how you handle it.

 

[Ionized]

"We treat cancer with radiation." 😀

 

[Gfunk6]

"What do you do?"

Me: "I'm a surgeon."

"Wow, what kind?"

Me: "A radiosurgeon!"

 

[medgator]

"We treat cancer with radiation." 😀

"We use radiation to treat cancer, while medical oncologists use chemotherapy to not treat cancer" (i kid i kid)

Seriously, I use that line a lot though minus the disparaging med onc comment. Most people are able to get that you are a cancer doctor using radiation while medical oncologists are cancer doctors that use chemo.

 

[Cancerdancer]

It is a tricky one, b/c you don't want to speak down to people, yet the mouthful of 'radiation oncologist' flies over some people.

I've taken to saying "I'm in radiation oncology, so I spend my day zapping tumors." Comes off as kind of a joke to those who are educated enough to get the first part (you can't always tell if they are), while those who aren't understand the 2nd part--but I've at least mentioned the full title rather than only giving the dumbed down version. Covers both bases...