The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) was designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute in 1973. It is located in the Harvard Medical School area, adjacent to the Beth Israel Hospital, the Brigham and Women's Hospital, The Children's Hospital, the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy, and the New England Deaconess Hospital as well as the Harvard Medical School campus itself. Active, long-standing training programs in medical, pediatric, radiation, and surgical oncology at the resident and/or fellow level developed at these facilities have as a major goal the creation of an environment which stimulates young physicians to become investigators in some aspect of academic oncology. This effort has been recognized by the awarding of institutional National Research Service Awards by the NCI to the DFCI (Medical and Pediatric Oncology), Brigham and Women's Hospital (surgical Oncology), and the New England Deaconess Hospital (Surgical Oncology). The present proposal requests support for clinically-trained oncologists who have already completed an initial fellowship-training experience in research, to develop patient-related projects under the direct supervision of a faculty mentor with the goal of becoming independent investigators in a cancer-related area. Specifically, this institutional grant will offer senior fellows and junior faculty the opportunity to master the methodology of experimental design and statistical and/or laboratory techniques and to apply this knowledge to the design and implementation of investigative efforts dealing directly with the study and management of cancer patients. The DFCI and its affiliated institutions combine the availability of a wide spectrum of laboratories with high volume and rich diversity of clinical material so as to provide an usually fertile environment for clinical investigation. Training will be provided by designated faculty mentors at the DFCI and/or adjacent institutions as well as through regularly scheduled lectures, clinical and research conferences, journal clubs, and - where appropriate - formal courses. The overall project will be governed by the Principal Investigator and a 15-member Advisory Committee which will be responsible for selecting physicians to be supported by this grant, assigning faculty members, and approving and periodically evaluating each clinical project. All members of the Advisory Committee as well as all mentors hold faculty appointments at Harvard University and participate in classroom presentations and laboratory and clinical research training. In addition to offering training support through this institutional grant, these faculty members also participate in pre- and post-doctoral training programs at Harvard University through their departmental faculty appointments, either at the DFCI or at neighboring Harvard-affiliated hospitals. It is expected that at the conclusion of a 3-5 year period of support, individuals who have participated in this program will have a mature understanding of a major area of fundamental tumor biology and will have been guided to develop hypotheses, based on this knowledge, which will be examined through the design and implementation of appropriate clinical trials. Through this experience and the publications which such research will generate, these individuals should be able to establish themselves as independent clinical investigators, ready to assume supervisory faculty positions in academic oncology departments.
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