Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) is the world’s largest private, non-profit cancer center, and is a referral center for patients from the greater New York area, the United States, and throughout the world. The Breast Surgery Service at MSKCC annually averages over 5,000 surgical cases. There are currently 20 full-time academic breast surgeons on the Breast Surgery Service. Our faculty include a diverse group of academic surgeons with wide-ranging interests in research, education, advocacy, and administration. Current faculty include past presidents of the Society of Surgical Oncology and the American Society of Breast Surgeons (emeritus), the current Chair of the Commission on Cancer, current and past national committee chairs, multiple NIH-funded researchers, as well as faculty with experience in both international and private practice settings.
About the Program
The Breast Surgery Service at MSKCC offers a one-year surgical fellowship to fully trained general surgeons who desire further experience in breast surgical oncology and the management of benign breast disease. Five new fellows are appointed each year.
Our fellowship program provides an outstanding surgical experience combined with an emphasis on multidisciplinary care and evidence-based management. After completion of our program, our trainees are well equipped to meet the challenges of breast cancer care in the 21st Century.
Our goal is to train the future leaders in the field of breast cancer and to help each fellow realize their full potential. Please see our brochure to learn more details about our program and graduates.
Curriculum
Our Breast Surgery Fellowship Program offers an outstanding clinical experience. Fellows spend approximately 8 months on our surgical service. Our 20 attending surgeons perform over 5,000 breast cancer operations per year, and our fellows have the opportunity to learn from each attending. Time is spent in both the operating room and outpatient clinics, and there is dedicated administrative/academic time each month on service. Fellows will have an opportunity to gain experience in all aspects of breast cancer surgery, including advanced oncoplastic techniques, nipple-sparing mastectomy, and axillary lymph node dissection with immediate lymphatic reconstruction.
Our fellows also share the office hours of the attending surgeons in order to provide fellows with experience in the outpatient management of breast cancer and benign breast disease. Fellows will spend time in one or more of our regional locations (transportation provided) as well as our Manhattan location, to learn about practicing in smaller settings.
Fellows will also participate in MSKCC’s RISE (Risk Assessment, Imaging, Surveillance, and Education) program for women at risk for developing breast cancer, which consists of specialized clinics that provide long-term breast cancer surveillance to high-risk women with lobular carcinoma in situ, atypical hyperplasia, strong family histories of breast and ovarian cancer, and/or women who are BRCA1 or BRCA2 carriers.
The remaining four months of our program are dedicated to non-operative time spent in the areas of medical oncology, radiology (including mammography, ultrasound, MRI, and image-guided percutaneous biopsy techniques), radiation oncology, pathology, clinical genetics, and plastic surgery. Each department at MSKCC is sub-specialized by tumor type and, therefore, each elective will focus only on breast cancer and benign breast disease, without diluting the experience with other tumor types.
Didactic Education Program
- Weekly multidisciplinary case conference led by fellows
- Weekly lecture given by leaders in breast cancer
- Weekly surgical Grand Rounds, all with a focus on oncology
- Monthly career development series led by faculty and addressing topics such as contract negotiation, starting a practice, and preparing for the job search
- Monthly journal club led by fellows and moderated by faculty
- Monthly service research meeting
- Society of Surgical Oncology Fellows Institute
Research, Publication, and Presentation
Our faculty are dedicated to advancing the field of breast oncology. The Breast Surgery Service currently has $8.5 million in NIH funding and includes 4 attending surgeons with NIH grants. Many active research programs exist in every aspect of breast oncology, including cancer disparities, patient-reported outcomes, basic and translational research, and practice-changing investigator-initiated trials. Each fellow is encouraged to submit abstracts to the Society of Surgical Oncology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society of Breast Surgeons, and the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium annual meetings. The fellow will work closely with research project managers, project coordinators, and research assistants. Statistical analysis is provided by a biostatistician from the MSKCC Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. The Breast Surgery Service shares an editor to proofread and assist in the submission of research manuscripts for publication consideration. Fellows will be supported to attend meetings where they are presenting their work.
Global Cancer Disparities Initiative Global Oncology Track
Interested fellows can apply for the Global Cancer Disparities Initiative Global Oncology Track. This program runs concurrently with the clinical fellowship and provides clinical trainees with a way to formally incorporate global health education training and research into their MSKCC training. The program consists of both didactic and research components as well optional field work.
Clinical Trials
The Breast Surgery Service also participates in a number of national cooperative group trials, including those from the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG), Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB), and National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP). Our attendings are institutional principal investigators for some of these trials and also run many investigator-initiated trials. Fellows will have significant exposure to a diversity of clinical trials on our service.
Eligibility
Applicants should be eligible or certified by the American Board of Surgery or an equivalent certifying body, and must be eligible for medical licensure in the State of New York.