• Overview
• Fellowship Program
  • Fellowship Applications
  • Curriculum for First Year
  • Curriculum for Upper Years
  • Current Fellows
• Benign Hematology Program
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The second phase of fellowship education is tailored to the career goals of the individual trainee.

Bench Research

Those individuals planning careers in basic research will spend the remainder of their fellowship either:

• As a mentored trainee with one of the twenty physician-scientists in our Division.

• With another appropriate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania or the Wistar Institute who works in diverse aspects of cancer genetics and genomics, proteomics, cell and developmental biology, signal transduction, stem cell biology, structural biology, immunobiology, gene therapy and virology.

The laboratory experience will be structured to provide the fellow with the training to build towards a career as an independent investigator. For those individuals who wish to obtain a Ph.D. degree as part of this experience, support for such activities can be arranged through the Clinical Investigator Graduate Degree Program.

Fellows attend a variety of formal and informal research venues to become aware of potential mentors. The scientific mentor is chosen no later than the spring of the first year after informal consultation with various faculty members and formal consultation with Drs. Russell and El-Diery.

Clinical Research

Fellows who wish to pursue careers in clinical research undertake a structured clinical research program that formally begins with the second year of fellowship training. This includes the following:

• A Core Curriculum in Clinical Research Methodology
  This includes a course led by Dr. Angie DeMichele given in the summer of the second year, "Methods in Clinical and Translational Cancer Research". Accompanying this introductory course are two additional monthly conferences:

  • "Fellows Clinical/Translational Research Conference" (chaired by Dr. DeMichele) - enables fellows to present for discussion their developing and ongoing independent research projects

  • "Fellows Journal Club" - provides a forum for critical review of the literature and further training in statistical methodology

  Both conferences are mandatory for all upper level fellows and are widely attended by the clinical research faculty.

• In-Depth Methodological Research
  For those desiring more in-depth methodological research training, there are several programs available through the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, including:

  • A year-long course led by Dr. Emma Meagher (Center for Experimental Therapeutics), "Patient Oriented Research", that culminates in the fellow generating a grant proposal

  • The summer courses offered by the AACR/ASCO and ASH

  • A Master's Degree in Clinical Epidemiology offered through the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology

  • A Master's Degree in Experimental Medicine and Translational Research offered through the Department of Pharmacology

Formal Mentoring

The program in formal mentoring consists of the fellow working closely with one or two of the twenty-six clinical/translational investigators in our Division. The fellow is assigned mentors after consultation with Drs. Schuchter, DeMichele, El-Diery and Loren. The process of identifying and meeting with potential mentors culminates in the spring of the first year of fellowship.

In this program, each fellow develops, writes, submits to the IRB, and executes one or more clinical research protocols. During this time, the fellow may also seek additional formal instruction in the design, execution and interpretation of clinical trials. For example, those individuals with particular professional interests in Cancer Epidemiology, may complement clinical research training with Master's degree training in Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, as noted above.

Clinical Experience

Whether participating in either the bench research or the clinical/translational research pathway, each fellow maintains a weekly continuity clinic throughout his/her fellowship. This allows fellows to deepen their experience in clinical hematology-oncology and develop their breadth of clinical experience. As in the first year, each fellow is supervised in the continuity practice by the clinical faculty with whom they see patients. All patients are seen with and under the direct supervision of an attending physician. The fellows' educational experience is further enhanced by their continuing to attend clinical case conferences in hematology and oncology throughout the upper years.

As well, fellows participate in any of the several multi-disciplinary subspecialty practices, particularly those related to their research projects. These include:

• Pigmented Lesion Clinic
• Thoracic Oncology Clinic
• Neuro-oncology Clinic
• GI Oncology Clinic
• Head and Neck Cancer Clinic
• Breast Cancer Practice

The fellows' training during this individualized, senior research phase is designed to prepare the fellows to begin independent investigative careers on medical school faculties. Integral to this training process, along with specific research activities, is training in scientific writing and presentation. In the spring of the second and third years, fellows are expected to make formal presentations of their research to the Division and they are encouraged and supported to present mature work at regional and national meetings of scholarly societies. All fellows are mentored sufficiently to apply for and compete successfully for KO8, K23 awards or their equivalents. Many opportunities exist for fellows who successfully obtain such awards to develop their professional careers following completion of their formal Fellowship training, as senior Research Associates or Instructors in the Division.