Chair
Ghaidaa Ebrahim
Welcome to the Oncology Committee!
The mission of the Oncology Committee is to educate medical students on the dynamic field of oncology. To accomplish this goal, we will encouraging anyone interested to attend educational as well as patient-centered lunch meetings on various topics of oncology. The Oncology Committee will also serve to provide a mentoring program for medical students in order to connect with faculty members, as well as raise cancer awareness through volunteer and/or fundraising opportunities.
- Women’s Health and Cancer
- Meetings held in conjunction with the OBGYN Committee
- Central Nervous System Malignancies
- Meetings held in conjunction with the Neurosurgery Committee
- Oncology in Rural and Underserved areas in Alachua County
- Oncology in Pediatrics
- Personalized Medicine in Oncology
- Palliative and End-of-Life Care
- Bone Marrow Transplantation
- Switching Residencies to become an Oncologist
- Understanding Clinical Trials and How to Safely Enroll Your Patients
- Cancer Survivors and Patient Family Panels
What is Oncology?
Oncology is a field in medicine that focuses on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer.
- A medical oncologist focuses on the diagnosis and management of cancers. These physicians may have a special interest in certain types of cancer and/or therapies but possess the training and skills for diagnosing and treating all forms of the disease.
- A hematologist oncologist (Heme/Onc) combines expertise in specifically treating both blood cancers (leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma) and solid tumors. These physicians can be trained in bone marrow transplantation as well.
- A surgical oncologist is responsible for the surgical aspects of cancer, including biopsies and tumor resection.
- A radiation oncologist specializes in utilizing high-energy radiation as a curative and/or palliative treatment for cancer. Radiotherapy is the medical use of ionizing radiation to control or kill malignant cells.
Oncology Residency & Fellowship
To become a medical oncologist, training typically involves completing a two-year fellowship program after completing an internal medicine residency. However, over the years, the trend has shifted toward combined hematology oncology fellowships, which now span three-years following internal medicine training.
To become a radiation oncologist, training consists of a five-year residency training following a clinical PGY-1 year (internship) in an accredited graduate medical education institution. Surgical, medical, or flexible internship is suggested. If you are particularly interested in this specialty, please visit the Radiation Oncology Committee website for more resources and opportunities.
Mentoring and Shadowing Opportunities
If interested, please contact Ghaidaa Ebrahim (ghaidaa.ebrahim@ufl.edu) for more details. If you have a specific type(s) of cancer you are interested in learning more about, please let us know, and we will do our best to connect you with the right physician.
Other Resources
- UF Health Cancer Center
- UF College of Medicine – Adult Hematology Oncology
- UF College of Medicine – Radiation Oncology
- UF College of Medicine – Pediatric Oncology
- UF Health Cancer Center Research
- American Society of Clinical Oncology
- American Cancer Society in Florida
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jess DeLaune