Clinical 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.