Please Help...

[Carbo/Taxol]

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I know many of you are going through the same agony right now....making a decision on your ROL. Here is my situation....

I am in med school in the Southeast...I would like to stay in the Southeast. My eventual goal (as of right now) is to hopefully go into Gyn Onc...which as you all know is very competitive. I am in a competitive med school with a very competitive Ob/Gyn program; however, the Gyn Onc division is not very big (2 oncologists) and there is not a fellowship program here. I would love to stay here, but I am concerned about opportunities for fellowship.

Among my other schools of interest are USF, MUSC, and UVA...of which both USF and UVA have gyn onc fellowships, but I absolutely loved MUSC and I didn't like USF or UVA as much. So to boil it all down...the two schools I like the most do not have gyn onc fellowships, but are competitive programs. Any thoughts?


Sorry for the long post. Good luck to everyone as you all prepare your ROL. 🙂

 

[DRMICKEY]

That is a tough situation that many of us have struggled with in different ways. I would say to go to the program that you think you will fit in best and excel in. If you really kick ass there, hopefully you can get that fellowship. It is definitely possible to get competitive fellowships from programs without that specific fellowship, e.g. Brown/Women & Infants sent 3 people into REI fellowships this year and they don't have an REI fellowship of their own. That being said I would look closely at the performace in recent years of the graduates of your top programs. Did the ones without Gyn Onc still send graduates into Gyn Onc fellowships? Did anyone apply? Did the programs with Gyn Onc keep their own residents for the fellowships? If there is a really strong trend one way or the other, that could definitely influence my decision.

Just out of curiousity, did you interview at Duke or UNC (Southeastern programs with strong Gyn Onc divisions)?

 

[Diane L. Evans]

Gyn Onc is extremely competitive. I was lucky enough to work with some of the best--in fact he is now the president of the gyn onc society. Anway. Yes definately rank the programs c fellowships first. If you interviewed at Univ Alabama rank them high too as they keep most of their grad for fellowships. Basically what I would do is a crisp search (crisp is a database of on going research and funding search for it on the website and you should link to it) through www.nih.gov to figure out which programs are doing the best onc research or search pubmed the National Library of Medicine search page I'll try and do some searches now. Specifically what is your rank list that you's like? ....

 

[Diane L. Evans]

U VA 11 trial studies http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/cancer-trials/gyn.cfm.
MUSC- not as much in terms of research PD publications include
1: Mathur SP, Mathur RS, Gray EA, Lane D, Underwood PG, Kohler M, Creasman WT. Related Articles, Links
Serum vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C) as a specific biomarker for advanced cervical cancer: Relationship to insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II), IGF binding protein 3 (IGF-BP3) and VEGF-B.
Gynecol Oncol. 2005 Sep;98(3):467-83.
PMID: 15982726 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
2: Creasman WT, Kohler MF, Odicino F, Maisonneuve P, Boyle P. Related Articles, Links
Prognosis of papillary serous, clear cell, and grade 3 stage I carcinoma of the endometrium.
Gynecol Oncol. 2004 Dec;95(3):593-6.
PMID: 15581969 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
3: Creasman WT, Kohler MF. Related Articles, Links
Is lymph vascular space involvement an independent prognostic factor in early cervical cancer?
Gynecol Oncol. 2004 Feb;92(2):525-9. Review.
PMID: 14766243 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
4: Mathur SP, Mathur RS, Underwood PB, Kohler MF, Creasman WT. Related Articles, Links
Circulating levels of insulin-like growth factor-II and IGF-binding protein 3 in cervical cancer.
Gynecol Oncol. 2003 Dec;91(3):486-93.
PMID: 14675666 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

USF: Not able to get on their website but recent articles include
Oct 2005 study green journal Aspirin inhibits ovarian cancer growth, that aspirin inhibited ovarian tumor cell growth by as much as 68 percent. The higher the dosage of aspirin added to the culture of ovarian cancer cells, the more growth inhibition was observed.
Also did you know William S. Roberts, M.D., has been appointed professor in the Gynecologic Surgical Oncology Division of the Department of Interdisciplinary Oncology at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute. Roberts comes to Moffitt from the Watson Clinic in Lakeland, where he was chief of gynecologic oncology from 1987 to 1994. Prior to his work at the Watson Clinic, he was a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of South Florida.

Looks like a touch decision they are all super programs! but if you truely want to go ionto gyn onc I would rank programs c onc fellowships first

HOWEVER PLEASE NOTE THIS IS ONLY MY OPINION I DO NOT WANT TO OFFEND ANY INSTITUTION.

Good luck Diane

2006 Recent publications I found of interest
The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas. Fallopian tube CA
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio obesity and Gyn onc

 

[Stephanieukmed]

U VA 11 trial studies http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/cancer-trials/gyn.cfm.
MUSC- not as much in terms of research PD publications include
1: Mathur SP, Mathur RS, Gray EA, Lane D, Underwood PG, Kohler M, Creasman WT. Related Articles, Links
Serum vascular endothelial growth factor C (VEGF-C) as a specific biomarker for advanced cervical cancer: Relationship to insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II), IGF binding protein 3 (IGF-BP3) and VEGF-B.
Gynecol Oncol. 2005 Sep;98(3):467-83.
PMID: 15982726 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
2: Creasman WT, Kohler MF, Odicino F, Maisonneuve P, Boyle P. Related Articles, Links
Prognosis of papillary serous, clear cell, and grade 3 stage I carcinoma of the endometrium.
Gynecol Oncol. 2004 Dec;95(3):593-6.
PMID: 15581969 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
3: Creasman WT, Kohler MF. Related Articles, Links
Is lymph vascular space involvement an independent prognostic factor in early cervical cancer?
Gynecol Oncol. 2004 Feb;92(2):525-9. Review.
PMID: 14766243 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
4: Mathur SP, Mathur RS, Underwood PB, Kohler MF, Creasman WT. Related Articles, Links
Circulating levels of insulin-like growth factor-II and IGF-binding protein 3 in cervical cancer.
Gynecol Oncol. 2003 Dec;91(3):486-93.
PMID: 14675666 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

USF: Not able to get on their website but recent articles include
Oct 2005 study green journal Aspirin inhibits ovarian cancer growth, that aspirin inhibited ovarian tumor cell growth by as much as 68 percent. The higher the dosage of aspirin added to the culture of ovarian cancer cells, the more growth inhibition was observed.
Also did you know William S. Roberts, M.D., has been appointed professor in the Gynecologic Surgical Oncology Division of the Department of Interdisciplinary Oncology at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute. Roberts comes to Moffitt from the Watson Clinic in Lakeland, where he was chief of gynecologic oncology from 1987 to 1994. Prior to his work at the Watson Clinic, he was a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of South Florida.

Looks like a touch decision they are all super programs! but if you truely want to go ionto gyn onc I would rank programs c onc fellowships first

HOWEVER PLEASE NOTE THIS IS ONLY MY OPINION I DO NOT WANT TO OFFEND ANY INSTITUTION.

Good luck Diane

2006 Recent publications I found of interest
The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas. Fallopian tube CA
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio obesity and Gyn onc

Hey Carbo, message me, I have info on USF, one of my friends is an onc fellow there.