The core 2-year fellowship curriculum will include dedicated time on the following services:
- Breast (1-2 months)
- Endocrine (1-2 months)
- Colorectal (1-3 months)
- Melanoma (2 months)
- Sarcoma/Gastric/Peritoneal Malignancies (2 months)
- Liver/Pancreas (2-10 months)
- Community Surgical Oncology (2 months)
Fellows will spend at least one day a week in clinic on each of the clinical services. This experience will ensure appropriate exposure to the multidisciplinary care of surgical oncology patients and will also ensure compliance with the multidisciplinary case requirements in the various oncologic disciplines. Opportunities for focused training in a specific oncologic area of interest in the second year will be addressed individually while ensuring compliance with minimum case requirements for board certification.
In addition, as of August 2019, the Duke HPB fellowship transitioned to an HPB-Surgical Oncology designation. This dual certification allows fellows training at Duke in Complex General Surgical Oncology (CGSO) to pursue additional specialty certification in HPB. Duke stands out as one of just a handful of CGSO fellowships to offer this dual certification.
Fellows will also spend a dedicated month on each of these 3 services: medical oncology, radiation oncology, and pathology. These experiences will be tailored to the fellows’ specific clinical interests. Fellows will also spend 4 months dedicated to clinical research. Fellows interested in basic science research during this time will be assessed on an individual basis to ensure an appropriate and productive experience.
The didactic curriculum will be integrated into pre-existing teaching curricula for HPB, breast, and endocrine fellows but will be enhanced to incorporate the entire breadth of general surgical oncology.