Neuro-Onc

[BrainWorks]

I don't know much about the Neuro-Onc fellowships. Can someone elaborate on them? How's the lifestyle and salary? Besides placing pts in clinical trials, what else do they do? Thanks in advance.

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[BrainWorks]

Also, what chemotherapeutic drugs are already out for brain tumors? Thanks.

 

[neurologist]

If by salary you mean salary during fellowship, you just get paid at the pgy5 level, whatever that is at the program. Figure about $1,000 more than a PGY4 neuro resident.

Lifestyle depends on the institution during fellowship. Mostly you see brain tumor patients in the outpatient and inpatient consult setting. You are (usually) not the primary service on inpatient, so call isn't too bad, but again, that may vary from program to program. At some fellowship programs, you may be required to do some in- or outpatient general neurology as well, but IMHO those are crappy programs that are just scutting you out and detracting from your fellowship experience.

You will see and examine patients, devise a chemo regimine, oversee it's implementation, see the patient for follow up, etc. You will probably enroll patients in studies. Most programs require some type of research project.

Once you get out of fellowship, you will find very few places where you can do 100% neuro-onc without some general neurology on the side. Generally speaking, the bigger academic centers will let you do more pure neuro onc than smaller community places or private practice. Salary varies with location, practice type (academic < private practice) and other aspects of your practice (i.e., do you do EMG or other procedures, etc).

With regard to what drugs are used, temozolomide is the biggie nowadays. Other common meds include CCNU, vincristine, and procarbazine.

 

[BrainWorks]

Thanks for the info, neurologist! That was very helpful. Actually, I wanted to know about salaries after fellowship (academic vs. private practice) as I couldn't find that anywhere. Are they much like general oncologists - charging crazy amounts for chemo?

 

[BrainWorks]

anyone???

 

[GopherBrain]

Ask me in 5 years...

 

[manning18]

Thanks for the info, neurologist! That was very helpful. Actually, I wanted to know about salaries after fellowship (academic vs. private practice) as I couldn't find that anywhere. Are they much like general oncologists - charging crazy amounts for chemo?

If you're going into Neurology mainly for the money (which is nothing to be ashamed of), Neuro-Onc might not be the best. I'm not too familiar with the field, but would imagine it's one of the more Academic Fellowships in Neuro (like Neuro-Opth, Neuro-Immunology, etc). Your opportunities for community based (ie private) practice maybe limited.
If you want to be a Neurologist and make a lot of money, Neuromuscular/EMG, Sleep or Neuro Critical Care might be better choices than Neuro-Onc. It just comes across as a field that's biased towards creating Academic Physicians.

 

[neurologist]

Are they much like general oncologists - charging crazy amounts for chemo?

You know, I don't really know the answer to this. Again, probably lots depends on practice setting. I suppose it's theoretically possible to hook up with a private onc group as their dedicated neuro-onc person and get a cut of the chemo action, but in other settings (neuro group, hospital) I don't know how that would work.

Your opportunities for community based (ie private) practice maybe limited.

I know people in big single specialty private neuro groups who are able to do a fairly large portion of their work in neuro-onc, but it would be less likely in smaller groups.

If you want to be a Neurologist and make a lot of money, . . . Neuro Critical Care might be better choices

Nah, NCC docs are mostly just ICU docs with a brain preference. Not much in the way of money there from what I've seen. Unless they happen to be able to cath people, too. Then there's a big financial upside. Refer to the ongoing flame wars between Rads and Neuro on this issue for more detail. . .