UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, five centers of excellence, and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has about 2,320 students and 690 medical residents. It is one of the state’s largest public employers with almost 9,000 employees, including nearly 1,000 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and the VA Medical Center. UAMS draws patients from every state in the U.S. and 34 foreign countries. The campus receives more than $100 million annually in national research grants and contracts. 2006 is the start of an estimated $200 million project that will include a replacement for the current hospital.
Objectives:
The overall goal of the Fellowship in Diseases of the Breast at the Arkansas Cancer Research Center (ACRC) of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), will be to further the experience of recently trained surgeons who wish to pursue careers in the multi-modality clinical care specific to the breast patient, and who will be investigators in and translators of the field of breast cancer research (academic breast surgical oncologists).
The specific aims of this program are to provide the Fellows with the opportunity to master Breast Surgery Oncology in a collegiate environment by:
1. Providing post-graduate, state-of-the-art training and experience in multi-modality clinical aspects of breast cancer.
2. Proving training and experience in basic, clinical, translational and outreach research regarding breast cancer.
3. Providing training and experience in a major cancer center in academic and scholarly activities regarding breast cancer.
Description of the Program Design:
The ability to understand advances in the field of basic breast cancer biology (basic research), application to observations in the field (translational research), the complex nature of clinical trial design and analysis, the rapid advance of technologies in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, and the incumbent psycho-social milieu, emphasizes the complex nature of training a breast surgical oncologist. Physicians interested in breast disease must be educated in a multi-modality fashion, developing knowledge of benign as well as malignant conditions.
The breast specialist needs to have training in molecular epidemiology, genetics, screening and detection, breast imaging, benign breast disease and breast pain, behavioral, medical, surgical, pathological and radiation oncology, as well as biostatistics, clinical trial design and analysis. After the research year the Fellow will spend one year on clinical rotations. The Fellow will run the Breast Service that consists of four surgical attendings, a senior level resident, and rotating medical students.
The Fellow will take calls only in regard to breast patients. Attending back up will be available at all times. Unique to this Fellowship is the emphasis on continuous versus fragmented care. The Fellow will diagnosis, operate (including reconstructive), assess pathology, address hormonal, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and psychosocial issues on the same patient. Basic surgical rotations include one-half day per week of benign breast disease clinic. Other clinical time will be one full day in new patient breast cancer clinic and ½ day in breast cancer follow-up clinic. Research staff are available for assistance in accruing patients onto clinical trials. One to two hour didactics will be provided weekly in Radiation Oncology.
The Fellows will participate in a weekly multidisciplinary case review conference, a weekly surgery pre-op conference, oncology lecture series, monthly ethics lectures, weekly tumor board, the Dean’s Research Forum, and a weekly writing review with their mentor. The Fellows also attend and present at multiple conferences per year. These include a grant writing course, research courses, imaging courses, a business course, the School of Breast Oncology, the Miami Breast Cancer Conference, ACS, SSO, AAS, ASBS, ASBD, and SWSC.
Society of Surgical Oncology - www.surgonc.org
