SUR 411 - Surgical and Breast Oncology

This is a senior elective (year M4) for any student interested in surgical oncology and breast surgery. The focus will be on the evaluation and staging of patients with common malignancies especially gastrointestinal cancer, breast cancer, melanoma, as well as unusual and complex problems. The importance of a well-thought out treatment plan as well as the multi-modality approach to care, will be emphasized. Importance will be placed on the comprehensive management of the entire patient, not only from a medical standpoint, but also in terms of psychological, social, and rehabilitation aspects. The student will also become familiar with the complexity of current national protocol studies. The student will be assigned to patients for twice daily rounds, procedures and ward work. Students will be required to attend the tumor conferences. During the rotation the student will be expected to perform an in-depth analysis each week on a tumor-specific evaluation or treatment that the student encountered and give a brief 10-minute summary to the course director. The textbook for the course is “THE M.D. Anderson Surgical Oncology Handbook, 4th Edition, Lippincott, 2006.” Online reference for the course is “The National Comprehensive Cancer Network” ONCCN.