hmm... basic science or clinical research? (and a few other questions =) )

[medgrays]

hey everyone,

I am an eager MS2 and I think I'm perfect match for Radiation Oncology. I'm at a top 10 rad onc institution and want to take some time off to do research here (hopefully get more excited about it and perhaps build a research interest for a future academic career).

I'm wondering what is a typical clinical project in RadOnc (other than clinical trials) and what's a typical basic science project? Does basic science primarily entail radiobiology stuff?

Also (if the more experienced folks could chime in here) what future areas for research do you consider most exciting in RadOnc? Do many faculty conduct basic science research in their academic careers (and do ANY faculty do basic science research in pure oncology in addition to their clinical responsibilites; because afterall rad oncs are oncologists too)?

sorry for the tons of questions... I'm freshly excited about aligning myself to this field!!

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[medgrays]

anyone? eagerly waiting to hear some responses/guidance

 

[radonc]

anyone? eagerly waiting to hear some responses/guidance

well, 'research' encompasses a whole slew of opportunities:
*retrospective review of a series of patients (clinical)
*participating in a prospective clinical trial (clinical)
*working with a physicist on projects dealing with image registration, igrt, etc (clinical physics)
*working in a lab doing bench research (basic science). this probably has the most opportunities and could span a lot of topics...hyperthermia, hypoxia, stem cells, dna damage/repair, tumor suppressor genes, etc. it usually (but not always) involves pipetting, animal models, cells, dna/rna work, a centrifuge, or maybe even a hood.
*translational research---a combo of basic and clinical research...'bring the bench to the bedside'. this may involve identifying molecular markers in a group of patients that is related to some sort of outcomes. my personal opinion is that this may be the most interesting and high yield of research in oncology for a student/resident.