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Program Overview

The Residency Program currently consists of six residents distributed among the PG-2 through PG-5 years.  Training at the first postgraduate year level is not offered through this program, however, it is a requirement that PGY-1 training be completed prior to entering the Radiation Oncology Program.  The training program is organized according to the structure of the Department of Radiation Oncology.  Patients are divided among nine primary clinical services denoted by disease site. Each service has a clinical secretary, an assigned nursing team and dedicated physics/ dosimetry support.  The distribution of patients is as follows:

Organization of the Radiation Oncology Clinical Teams

Red Team
Dr. Marilyn Ling

  • Breast cancers

Yellow Team
Dr. Alan Katz

  • Gastrointestinal cancers

Green Team
Dr. Ralph Brasacchio

  • Genitourinary cancers

White Team
Dr. Deepinder Singh
Dr. Hong Zhang

  • Head and neck cancers
  • Thoracic cancers

Purple Team
Dr. Michael Milano

  • Shaped beam radiosurgery and new modalities
  • Central nervous system cancers
  • Thoracic cancers

Orange Team

Dr. Yuhchyau Chen, Interim Department Chair

  • Head and neck cancers
  • Thoracic cancers

Gray Team
Dr. Kenneth Usuki

  • Shaped beam radiosurgery and new modalities
  • Central Nervous System cancers

Blue Team
Dr. Louis Constine, Vice-chair

  • Hematological, pediatric CNS, pediatric and sarcomatous cancers
  • Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas
  • Total body irradiation for bone marrow transplantation and pituitary tumors
Highland Hospital Team

Dr. Deepinder Singh

  • Gynecologic oncology, including brachytherapy
  • Gastrointestinal cancers
  • Thyroid cancers
  • Miscellaneous malignancies and prostate brachytherapy

 

Rotation Overview

The great majority of rotations are at Strong Memorial Hospital. Residents in PGY2-5 complete two rotations on each of the seven primary clinical services.  Thus, they will gain broad exposure to the entire spectrum of oncology patients and their treatment.  This organization has the strength of providing the resident with a limited number of cancer types toward which to devote his/her learning energies at any one time, and ensures individual attention from an attending physician who provides a consistent, methodical educational experience.  Depending on the PGY level and demonstrated level of competence, the resident is given progressively greater responsibility for patient management.

In the 3rd and 4th years of residency, additional experience is gained at our affiliated hospital, Highland Hospital (located within a short drive of the University of Rochester), including experience in gynecologic-oncology and involvement in the internationally renowned clinic for treating rectal cancers with endocavitary therapy.

PGY4&5 residents are additionally each designated and serve as ‘chief resident’. The chief resident performs academic and administrative responsibilities including organization of the educational conference schedule.

PGY4 & 5 residents also oversee the educational experience of the more junior residents, assume an increased level of clinical responsibility under the guidance of the attending physicians, and oversee the operation of an individual service (when the primary attending physician is absent), under the guidance of a covering attending physician.