Urologic Oncology Fellowship

Program Description

The fellowship program in Urologic Oncology in UT Southwestern’s Department of Urology is designed for additional specialized training in both the clinical and research aspects of urologic oncology. The program is offered to U.S. residents completing their training who seek careers in academic urologic oncology.

The program is marked by a high volume of open and minimally invasive management of prostate, bladder, testes, renal, penile, and urethral malignancies. In addition, this fellowship features clinical and research experience with options in basic science, clinical trial design, and clinical outcomes research. 

The program, which is currently approved as a Society of Urologic Oncology-accredited fellowship, offers a single two-year position each year. In the first year, the fellow immerses him/herself in research aspects of urologic oncology.

Research Program

The fellow may take a university graduate course in qualitative techniques such as biostatistics or research design in the Department of Clinical Sciences. Laboratories in the Department of Urology offer the fellow important opportunities to participate in research, which are centered on:

• Signal networking in prostate cancer
• Prostate stem cell
• Small molecule therapy
• Mechanisms of resistance in Androgen independent prostate cancer
• Bladder cancer gene therapy
• Epithelial mesenchymal transition in renal tumors

In addition, the many well-funded laboratories at the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center are available as options for basic science research for the genitourinary (GU) oncology fellow.

The fellow also has access to a number of mature prospective databases that will allow him/her to investigate a number of GU oncology outcomes. Additionally, more than 20 active studies in the clinical research program are ongoing, including a number of investigator-initiated clinical trials in urologic oncology. These include a biomarker-based adjuvant chemotherapy trial in bladder cancer. The clinical research program also offers the GU oncology fellow the opportunity to become involved in clinical trials design. 

Clinical Program

The clinical program is supervised by the Urologic Oncology faculty. Surgeries take place at UT Southwestern University Hospitals—Zale Lipshy and St. Paul, the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and Parkland Memorial Hospital).

In all cases, the fellow will have direct supervision from an attending. In some instances, while under attending supervision, the fellow will have the opportunity to guide the resident in the outpatient setting.

The fellow will be expected to develop necessary skills to participate in collaborative and translational work. This will be facilitated through regular conferences at the Simmons Cancer Center, Parkland, andUT Southwestern.

In addition, our weekly multimodality meetings on Mondays, which are attended by Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, and Urologic Oncology, offer an interactive discussion of the management of each patient with urologic malignancies.