Department of Medicine
University of Pittsburgh
Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Training Program
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The Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) offers postdoctoral training leading to American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) board eligibility in hematology and medical oncology. The three-year program provides advanced clinical and laboratory training under the supervision of specialists offering unique educational opportunities and diverse training experiences.
The training program is an integral part of UPCI, a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center. UPCI brings together clinicians and investigators in medical oncology, hematology, surgical oncology, radiation oncology and basic science departments. UPCI membership includes more than 300 scientists from the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and Pittsburgh affiliated hospitals. Translational research is emphasized in a broad spectrum of UPCI-sponsored clinical and laboratory investigations. The extent of the accomplishments of UPCI faculty is reflected in the high level of extramural support granted from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). UPCI ranks in the top 15 in NCI funding across the United States and U.S. News & World Report ranked UPCI 11th among the "Best of the Best" cancer programs in the nation for the year 2002.
The curriculum of the fellowship program entails 18 months of clinical training and 18 months of research training. An additional one or two years of research training is available for qualified trainees aspiring to academic careers. The clinical training program permits fellows to participate in intensive inpatient and outpatient experiences under faculty supervision. Inpatient rotations expose the fellow to:
- Medical Oncology Inpatient Service, with a diverse population of inpatients undergoing both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures
- Medical Oncology Consultative Service, with patients hospitalized in the medical and surgical beds of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and affiliated hospitals in the Oakland Campus
- Hematology Inpatient Service, consisting of patients with leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, sickle cell, and hemostatic disorders
- Bone Marrow Transplantation Service, with patients undergoing allogenic, autologous, and unrelated donor transplants
- Hematology Consult Service, with diverse exposure to hematology as well as the unique experiences offered by exposure to the world-renowned UPMC solid-organ transplant service
- Hematology/Oncology Service of the Oakland Veterans Administrative Hospital.
- Long-standing affiliations with the Central Blood Bank of Pittsburgh, Western Psychiatric Hospital, Children's Hospital, and Magee-Womens Hospital broaden the clinical experience. Fellows are routinely involved in clinical investigations, which include intramural studies of UPCI and multi-institutional protocols sponsored by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), as well as other cooperative groups (NSABP, CCSG, and GOG).
The outpatient training program revolves around multidisciplinary disease centers and modality programs. These include the melanoma, brain tumor, lung cancer, breast cancer, leukemia/lymphoma, genitourinary cancer, head and neck cancer and gastrointestinal cancer centers, and the bone marrow transplant, transfusional medicine, clinical coagulation and biologic and developmental therapeutics programs. In addition to these experiences, the fellows follow a cohort of patients longitudinally for three years under the supervision of faculty members in the continuity clinic, in which the fellows serve as primary caregivers.
Multiple formal didactic programs are available to the fellows. In addition to oncology grand rounds and medicine grand rounds and multiple tumor boards and conferences organized through each of the multidisciplinary centers outlined above, a didactic lecture series is presented to the fellows in which both basic and state-of-the-art clinical and research topics are discussed. Through participation in a weekly journal club fellows are taught to critically review literature.
During their 18 months of research, fellows may participate in a wide range of clinical and basic research activities within UPCI. Fellows selecting the laboratory research track may join one of the many faculty involved in cancer biology, pharmacology and immunology. Past fellows' research has ranged from basic molecular biology of leukemias to signal transduction in T-lymphocytes to pre-clinical studies of novel therapeutic agents. Fellows choosing clinical research engage in investigations of one of the disease modality areas with appropriate experts at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Fellows are guided through their fellowship to become productive, independent researchers in their chosen areas.