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The Department of Radiation Oncology provides an accredited four-year training program in preparation for examination by the American Board of Radiology for applicants who have completed a clinical PG-1 year. As the only academic hospital-based radiation oncology facility in the metropolitan Syracuse area, we serve approximately 1,200 patients per year referred from the entire Central New York region and see the full spectrum of neoplastic diseases.
The efforts of the full-time clinical faculty are dedicated to resident training through experience. The principles of oncology and therapeutic radiology are learned through carefully supervised evaluations of new patients emphasizing a holistic therapeutic approach. The resident follows each patient longitudinally from consultation through treatment planning, during the course of therapy, and in follow-up clinics.
Practical experience is gained in the use of external beam radiotherapy, including Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) and 3-D conformal radiation therapy. Brachytherapy training is achieved through an extensive intracavitary and interstitial brachytherapy program that includes a remote HDR afterloader. Treatment planning includes inverse planning for IMRT, both 2 and 3-dimensional treatment planning utilizing images from an on-site CT Simulator. On-line portal imaging and multileaf collimation are routinely integrated into patient treatment.
Active stereotactic radio-surgery using Gamma Knife, bone marrow transplant, and prostate brachytherapy programs as well as participation in many cooperative clinical trials programs (COG, GOG, CALGB, etc.) provide state of the art experiences for residents and fellows. Didactic courses and laboratory exercises in radiological physics, radiation biology, tumor and radiation pathology, as well as multiple interdisciplinary conferences provide the resident with an extensive fund of knowledge.
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