Med Oncology vs. Rad Oncology vs. Peds Oncology

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irishmedicine

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If you are interested in working in the area of oncology, which field is better to pursue: med oncology, rad oncology vs paediatrics oncology.
What are the pros and cons of each field? Job Prospects?

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You can do oncology from many different fields.

IM-->heme/onc
Peds-->heme/onc
Rad Onc
Gen Surg --> surgical oncology
Gen Surg --> hepatobiliary
Gen Surg --> colorectal
Gen Surg --> General thoracic
General Thoracic (integrated)
Neurology --> neuro onc
Neurosurgery --> tumor
Ortho --> tumor
ENT --> head and neck tumors
Urology -> they do tumors but I'm not sure what the fellowship is
Derm --> lots of stuff

But cancer is so different so you need to figure out which types of cancer you want to treat, how you want to tackle it, what you want your patient population to look like, what additional stuff can you tolerate the best until you set up an onc practice, adults vs. kids, hospital vs. outpatient, etc etc etc.
 
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There's no "better" job to pursue, though I hear the job market from rad onc is bad.

Rad Onc is totally, totally different from adult and peds heme/onc. Then you have to decide whether you like working with kids or adults. Outcomes are different and generally better for kids, at least for hematologic malignancies. There are different cancers that you see with each population (ex. breast cancer in adults, Wilms tumor in kids).

I recommend doing some online research about the different specialties, then coming back and asking more specific questions, but I'm sure people will chime in. Also, this forum is meant for med students to post in.
 
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Don’t do Peds heme/onc: very few jobs and awful pay for the jobs that do exist. Only do it if you want an 80% research job and want to earn half as much as a general pediatrician.


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