Interested in Heme/Onc description

[BubbaGump187]

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Hi,

Can anyone describe for me the everyday common patients and procedures that a heme/onc sees. I am a medical student and I am interested in this specialty, but I do not have any way of finding out more about it.

the reason I am interested is because I have done research on different cancers but I have not seen the clinical side.

also how hard is it to match into after internal?

 

[gutonc]

Hi,

Can anyone describe for me the everyday common patients and procedures that a heme/onc sees. I am a medical student and I am interested in this specialty, but I do not have any way of finding out more about it.

Out in the community, you'll see 50% breast cancer, 50% everything else. If you're part of a large enough group, you may be slightly specialized (e.g. see more of the GI malignancies and less lymphoma than everyone else) but in general you'll see just about everything. Procedure-wise, it's Bone Marrow Biopsies and the occasional LP and that's about it. I still do thoracentesis and paracentesis as a fellow but that's pretty rare once you're out of training.

also how hard is it to match into after internal?

Easier than GI/Cards, harder than most everything else.

 

[BubbaGump187]

thanks for your reply, still have more questions

Do most of the patients you see make it or do a lot of them succumb to the cancers?

Also what surgical specialty that performs the surgical removal of the neoplasms(like breast, GI, liver...those other than nerosurgeons) and what role do they play in the management of your patients.

 

[drychicken]

to answer above questions-

regarding 1st question - completely depends on type and stage of cancer.

2nd question - many, many surgical specialties are involved in resections and biopsies of tumors. most common surgery specialties you interact with as med onc:

-general surg (or surgical oncologist, or those who specialized in pancreaticoheptobiliary diseases) for colorectal CAs, other GI CAs, also commonly for port-a-cath placement
-breast surgeon (or surgical oncologist, or gen surg) for breast
-thoracic surg
-ENT/ head&neck surgeons
-urologists, for prostate and renal cancers
-gyn (in some places, med oncs don't deal at all with gyn cancers, but depends)

-sometimes refer directly to plastics for breast reconstruction (but usually surgeon who does initial breast surgery will refer)
-sometimes refer to plastics for chemo extravastation injuries

 

[LadyDO2011]

Do find yourself becoming more jaded to patient death and bad news than other specialties? I am extremely interested in the path of oncology and a bit interested in hematology particularly sickle cell disease. I hear the lifestyle is what you make it of it ( I have a daughter and a husband) the clinical aspect is so interesting! But I am worried that I will be so saddened by all the bad news or I will become calloused, you know? Do you find yourself getting depressed about patients and wishing you went into something else? Do you feel like your spinning your wheels with treatments bc lets face it, many treatments make patients very ill before they get better and many times make them susceptible to infections that kill them before the tumors would have...am I right? I know that this sort of thing is common with medicine in general but say with asthma and immunology-generally what give the patient population works and you feel good-or at least that is what my doc says-lol.
I am a 3rd yr btw

 

[hsans23]

to the above poster, shadow a heme onc for a week or better yet do a rotation as a 4th yr and see how you feel. i think that is the only way to figure that out for yourself. my short answer (also as a 3rd yr heading to heme onc land someday) after doing the above is NO it is the furthest thing from depressing - there is a lot of joy and celebration and a lot of hope in this field....inevitably treatment failures occur but there is a great deal of satisfaction in coaching a pt and family toward the process of a "good death" and what an honor it is that that could be our profession. i think the bottom line w onc is that if you let it, the relationships w patients will be very INTENSE for good and for bad...that is something that attracted me to the field, that deep relationship w pts in a very vulnerable, suffering place in their lives and a chance to be there for them (with the very best science, knowledge and clinical trials as well as w compassionate care)