What do you find to be the most cerebral aspect of the job?

[Swaggy109010]

What part of the job requires you to think/use your training the most? I'm curious because I imagine for a lot of specialties it is diagnosing, and obviously that's not really a part of rad onc (besides diagnosing complications I imagine). So what part requires you to think/read up the most? Is it figuring out who qualifies for what therapy, or where exactly to apply the dose, etc? And as a follow up, I know every field has a lot of monotony and cut and dry cases, but is there much about rad onc that you feel requires you to think or really stretch yourself? Do you find the work to still be interesting/intellectually stimulating?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[seper]

For me, it's the "plain doctoring" part. Talking to patients, figuring out family dynamics, probability of surviving, etc..

 

[Haybrant]

What part of the job requires you to think/use your training the most? I'm curious because I imagine for a lot of specialties it is diagnosing, and obviously that's not really a part of rad onc (besides diagnosing complications I imagine). So what part requires you to think/read up the most? Is it figuring out who qualifies for what therapy, or where exactly to apply the dose, etc? And as a follow up, I know every field has a lot of monotony and cut and dry cases, but is there much about rad onc that you feel requires you to think or really stretch yourself? Do you find the work to still be interesting/intellectually stimulating?

There is no other field like rad onc when it comes to problem solving. As a non-oncologist cancer is just cancer. To the oncologist cancer is so much more. Just two iterations - local vs distant disease creates incredible complexity, then there is anatomical variation/tumor location variation/dose/imaging/lymphatics/side effects and the one that is also somewhat unique - long term and very long term side effects. There is also the psychology of the whole thing which if you care to explore it is amazing. There are layers and layers of complexity that you just cant see until you start doing it. Just diagnosis, truthfully that sounds somewhat boring.