I just recently discovered that this field exists. How many years does it take to become a Surgical oncologist. I am an M3 currently and have not yet done my surgery clerkship. It seems really exciting...but i would like more info. What types of cases do they see? Why cant a general surgeon excise a tumor...why would one refer to a surg onc? Also, how competitive is it to get a fellowship in surg onc? Anyone know the lifestyle of a surg onc? I would imagine there would be very few emergency onc cases. Family life is important to me but I am interested in surgery.
Surgical Oncology
- Thread starter DadiyaMD
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Surg onc is like a supercharged general surgeon who does research in cancer. Gen surgeons and surg onc surgeons both operate on cancer. the gen surgeon gets defensive that he can take care of patients with cancer as good as the surg onc. but the reality is that the surg onc will get the more difficult cases because he's the subspecialist. The surg onc people tend to do research and are in academics. Very few in private practice. To become surg onc, do 5 years of gen surg, 2 years of research now is important during residency, plus the two year fellowship. its about 9 years. you can do 3 or 4 years of research. but don't do less than 2 years. some get a phd. there are around 30 spots in the U.S. very competitive like peds surg. look up on the website of the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) for more information including a list of SSO accredited fellowships. hopkins has a 1 year fellowship, but you need to have done their gen surg residency to get it. there are other accredited programs at sloan 5 spots, md anderson 5 spots, miami 1 spot, USF 1 spot, john wayne cancer institute, fox chase, roswell, ohio state. those who can't get surg onc fellowships can do other related fellowships like breast. there are some non accredited surg onc fellowships like at mt sinai miami beach. look on the U.S. news and world report website for best cancer hospitals and apply to those for gen surg residency. do research now in surg onc, do a rotation in surg onc at one of those big places for it. nih NCI is big for surg onc too for research. they do cases on soft tissue sarcoma in extremities breast and retroperitoneal, melanoma, hepatobiliary and pancreas, breast, colorectal. urologists, ENT's, OBGYN, neurosurgeons have their own types of "surgical oncologists", but don't touch the places that I mentioned. gen surgeons refer to surg oncs for the most complicated cases that go to tertiary hospitals. surg oncs are also known for thei strong multidisciplinary treatment of disease. the same day the radiation oncologist, medical oncologist, and surgical pathologist will speak with the surg onc person to discuss management. outside with the typical gen surgeon, the patient may not be discussed amongst the specialists as quickly, and things get delayed. not good when you are worried about metastasis and tumor growth making the tumor unresectable. the specialty can be sad because you deal with lots of people who are very sick with a poor prognosis, however it can also be one of the most rewarding specialties in medicine to help these patients, some of whom are the most vulnerable. the lifestyle of the surg onc fellow is like the residents in gen surg. you take call. its tough like any surgical residency. when you get out, you'll likely be in academics. that schedule varies on how much you take on with research, teaching, and clinical practice. can be as tough as residency if you want it to be. it can be as easy as you want, if you limit yourself to breast in private practice you'll have uncomplicated cases and no call keeping you up all night like a trauma surgeon. there are some emergencies i've heard of, but can't think of any right now. its not emergency heavy, though. maybe someone else has some examples. good luck.
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I just started my M3 surgery clerkship on Monday (1/5/03); and as luck would have it, I got placed to do my first month on a surgical oncology service. I would agree that surgical oncologists are glorified general surgeons, with a few exceptions. For instance, the attending that I am working with with does not do research. Instead, he attends two services at the hospital I am rotating at; a gen surg service and a surg onc service. He does a good job of splitting his time equally. On the surg onc service, we see mostly cases that are referred to him by PCPs or from the E.R. (i.e.-breast cancer, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, thyroid cancer, etc.). I've only been there for two days, but already we have done one Whipple procedure (for pancreatic carcinoma) and have another scheduled for two days from now. This was an awesome 6+ hour case. In the past two days we have also done a total mastectomy, a colon resection, an excision of some ectopic breat tissue from the axilla of a young girl, and a submandibular lymphadenectomy. I also got to sit in on a an appendectomy and a laproscopic cholecystectomy on the gen surg service.
As far as I can tell, surg onc is a great field to go into. It requires an extensive understanding of the pathology and treatment of cancers, both surgical and non-surgical. I think that it requires a 3 year fellowship after a 5 year gen surg residency.
As far as I can tell, surg onc is a great field to go into. It requires an extensive understanding of the pathology and treatment of cancers, both surgical and non-surgical. I think that it requires a 3 year fellowship after a 5 year gen surg residency.
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