Modern oncological management demands a level of expertise in cancer surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and other modalities of treatment and a multidisciplinary conceptual approach. This means a specialized training for the individual who so chooses to work in this field.
Oncology is a specialty with a vast armamentarium available for eradicating the cancer cell in its entirety. The role of the surgeon is invaluable: as surgical ablation and surgical cytoreduction is directly related to disease control. Hence a number of difficult surgical procedures may need to be performed to cope with local, regional & even metastatic tumour control, and is best accomplished by surgeons who are frequently exposed to these complicated procedures. Surgical expertise in these uncommon scenarios is directly related to patient outcome. This is a well
known and statistically proven fact.
A surgical oncologist is a specialised surgeon who has obtained additional education and experience in the multidisciplinary approach to the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of cancer patients, and who devotes his or her professional practice to these activities and to cancer research. Surgical oncologists interact with other oncologic disciplines and provide leadership to the surgical, medical, and lay communities in matters pertaining to cancer
The speciality board in surgical oncology (SBSO) is the subspecialty board under board of surgery (BOSS) which is responsible in training and assessing surgical oncology trainees.
Cancer care is evolving rapidly the surgical oncologist is needed to keep pace with these changes. With modern standards of care, most solid malignancies are treated in combination of surgery and other multi-modal therapies. As a result, the surgical oncologist is expected to lead the multi-disciplinary team. They must be more than just a technician and must understand the biology and natural history of the disease as well as the contributions made by other disciplines to the care of cancer patients. The training program ensures that the surgeon becomes a surgical oncologist.
The program is designed to provide the type of training that would equip the final product to treat various stages of solid organ malignancies (except brain tumours) of the human body surgically through the multidisciplinary approach. It is expected that the fully trained specialist would be up-to-date with all recent developments in the field of oncological surgery and would be in a position to provide holistic care for those patients who need the expertise of a Specialist Surgical Oncologist to minimise mortality and morbidity of such patients. The curriculum that has been planned and elucidated later on in this document has incorporated a myriad of training activities that need to be undertaken over the full period of training
The exit outcomes of the training programme are as follows:
- Patient care.
- Medical knowledge.
- Interpersonal and communication skills
- Professionalism
- Evidence-based approach
The candidates will be selected on the merit based ranking results of the Final MD (Surgery) Examination. The positions available will be indicated in the Circular calling for applications for the MD Examination or before the allocation meeting of appointments for specialties. On the basis of the order of merit, would make the appropriate selection for training.
The selected candidates would be provided with full and comprehensive details of the training programme. This would be available at the PGIM for perusal by prospective candidates prior to the Allocation Meeting
Please refer to the relevant prospectus for the most up to date information. The prospectus of a particular programme contains official information pertaining to a programme approved by the Board of Management, University Senate and the University Grants Commission