I think that if you want to oncology, it's a good idea to rotate through all fields - surg onc, med-onc, peds-onc, rad-onc.
The positives of rad-onc that really stick out:
- lots of teamwork (physicists, dosimetrists, techs depend on you and you depend on them)
- image based ... i didn't love dx rads, but i do love that i'm getting a good feel of looking at films, from a treatment planning point of view
- we spend probably the most time with our patients during consultation and treatment
- we have to know much about the other fields (i feel, though not sure abpit this, that i will have a better handle on indications for chemo than a surg onc and a better handle of knowledge of specific surgical procedures than a med onc)
- there is multiple facets of our job - the consult, the on treatment visits, the simulations, the treatment planning, follow-ups - that break up the day. You are pretty busy running from one aspect of patient care to the next, and it doesn't get monotonous.
- unlike the plastics surgeons and orthopods, rad-oncs get all women (or men, depending ...)
-S