Training

The first year of the program is devoted to an intensive exposure to clinical neuro-oncology and consists of hands-on clinical rotations in both ambulatory and hospital settings at MGH and DFCI/BWH. The year is divided into one-month blocks, rotating between inpatient neuro-oncology services at MGH, outpatient neuro-oncology clinics at MGH, inpatient neuro-oncology services at DFCI/BWH, or outpatient neuro-oncology clinics at DFCI. The optional second and third years of fellowship are primarily dedicated to research with 1-2 half-day outpatient neuro-oncology clinics per week.

The training is comprehensive with high patient volumes in primary brain tumors (including gliomas), central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma, CNS metastases, and neurologic complications of cancer and cancer therapy. In one year, our institutions total more than 40,000 outpatient visits, more than 2600 new outpatient visits, and more than 7000 inpatient visits. Both DFCI/BWH and MGH have a large referral basis from New England and beyond for clinical trials.

Management of patients with neuro-oncologic disorders requires multidisciplinary care. Therefore, trainees will also interact extensively with trainees and staff in other outstanding MGH/BWH/DFCI programs including medical oncology, hematology, palliative care, neurology, neurosurgery, radiation oncology, neuroradiology, and neuropathology. While the fellowship focuses on the neuro-oncologic care of adult patients, fellows will also rotate with the pediatric neuro-oncology teams at MGH and DFCI / Boston Children's Hospital.

The second and third years are optional but strongly encouraged. These years are devoted to laboratory-based, translational, or clinical research. During the autumn of the first year of fellowship, trainees begin exploring options for investigative efforts around their individual interests. Each trainee selects a research mentor who is responsible for specific projects and the educational development of the trainee. Research mentors may be selected from any HCC affiliated institution including MGH, BWH, DFCI, Boston Children’s Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Harvard Medical School.

Research fellows are supported by intramural funding sources, but are also encouraged as part of the training process to apply for extramural sources of funding. Those interested in a basic or translational science project may apply for a two-year K12 training grant or a T32 cancer neuroscience training grant.

DFCI/BWH and MGH staff members are also very active in brain tumor clinical trial research and are recognized leaders within the field. We participate in all the major consortia for brain tumor clinical trials (including, Alliance, NRG, and ETCTN). We are also a member of the Glioblastoma Therapeutics Network (GTN) through an NIH U19 cooperative agreement. Supervised by faculty and research staff, trainees will care for patients enrolled on clinical trials during their fellowship. Research fellows will also have the opportunity to write and develop new protocols for review by the Institutional Review Board.

Below are examples of research projects by current and recent trainees: