The mentor assumes a major role in providing research training but also provides advice and recommendations for fellows as they develop as clinicians and leaders. We encourage fellows to form a mentorship team of individuals who can help in all aspect of career development. As with any professional relationship, it is important for both the mentor and the mentee to establish and maintain expectations for working together. The fellow works most closely with their continuity clinic attending, who may become their primary mentor, but fellows may also collaborate with other faculty members within or outside of the Division. This includes physician-investigators and basic scientists from five research programs composed of Cancer Biology, Cancer Control, Leukemia and Hematologic Malignancies, Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention, and Translational Therapeutics. Research within these programs ranges from basic to clinical, but all have the goal of improving cancer treatment and prevention and are committed to translating research advances between the bench and the bedside.
Fellows have ample research opportunities within the network of collaborative studies ongoing between training and contributing faculty. In developmental therapeutics, for example, studies on drug resistance involve basic scientists in the College of Pharmacy, the College of Biological Sciences and the College of Medicine and Public Health, as well as physician-scientists in the Division. This type of focused research, to which faculty with different backgrounds and perspectives contribute their expertise, characterizes the stimulating research environment open to trainees.
Faculty involved in this training program make major contributions to national research groups including the ALLIANCE co-operative group, the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), the AIDS Malignancy Consortium, as well as several other subspecialty societies. Thus, trainees are encouraged to be involved — which has a major impact on cancer care in national and international research trials and collaborations — and present their findings at national meetings.
