Research Opportunities

There are extensive opportunities for clinical and translational research. Each fellow is expected to participate in clinical research projects that lead to peer-reviewed publications. Every faculty member provides support and concepts to help fellows in this effort. In addition, for interested fellows, there are opportunities for collaborative laboratory projects recognizing the limits on the ability to conduct laboratory research in a short time period.

There is also an opportunity for a concentrated research experience to prepare surgical oncology fellows for a research-oriented career. This is a National Cancer Institute-funded T-32 Training Grant opportunity that can be combined with the clinical fellowship. Fellows may do the T-32 program either before or after the clinical years of the fellowship. T-32 fellows choose from among any of the scientific programs at RP and twenty-five of the leading scientists at the Institute for their scientific mentorship. Opportunities include laboratories in genetics, immunology, pharmacology, and other basic science programs as well as translational research, epidemiology and health services research. Fellows who have completed the T-32 program are currently leaders in surgical oncology at many major medical schools across the United States and Canada.

Fellows who wish to pursue the combined clinical fellowship/T-32 program starting at the beginning of the fellowship can meet the requirements for both in 36 months.

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center’s groundbreaking basic and clinical research programs attract approximately $104 million in research grants and contracts each year. Roswell Park and its prominent “next-door” neighbors—the Structural Biology Research Center of Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute and the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences of the University at Buffalo—constitute the Buffalo-Niagara Medical Campus. The three research powerhouses share specific resources, including the University at Buffalo’s world-class supercomputing facilities, and work together in areas of mutual research.

• Fellows are granted protected time to pursue their own academic and research interests while on clinical rotation and up to five elective months.

• Fellows enjoy unrestricted access to Roswell Park’s Dr. Edwin A. Mirand Library, a National Library of Medicine-designated regional resource library with one of the nation’s largest collections of cancer-related materials. Extensive online journals and publications are available to all fellows.