Design and Content
Rotation 1: Clinic Introduction and Detectors (2 Months)
Residents are introduced to the radiation oncology clinic workflow, the roles of various clinic staff, and the functionality of radiation detectors used in the clinic. The rotation also covers familiarization with clinical and physics work flow processes, as well as patient and machine quality assurance (QA) checks.
Rotation 2: Treatment Imaging and Equipment (3 Months)
This rotation focuses on the design, operation, acceptance, and commissioning of radiation-producing equipment, including photon and particle accelerators. Residents also learn the fundamentals of imaging modalities relevant to radiation oncology, including MRI, PET/CT, and CBCT.
Rotation 3: Treatment Planning I (3 Months)
Residents learn the fundamentals of external beam photon and electron treatment planning. Core concepts include CT simulation workflows, image registration, target and organ-at-risk contouring, 3D conformal planning techniques, basic plan evaluation, and manual dose/monitor unit verification.
Rotation 4: Brachytherapy (4 Months)
This rotation covers the clinical practice, delivery, and quality assurance for brachytherapy procedures. Residents develop treatment planning proficiency for active and past departmental programs, including gynecologic high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy, low dose rate (LDR) eye plaque brachytherapy, and LDR prostate seed implants.
Rotation 5: Treatment Planning II (3 Months)
Building upon the first planning rotation, residents focus on advanced photon treatment planning. Emphasis is placed on IMRT and VMAT planning, inverse optimization concepts, biological modeling, dose summation for multi-phase treatments, and the fundamentals of linac-based stereotactic planning.
Rotation 6: Special Procedures and Proton Therapy (6 Months)
This advanced rotation focuses on specialized, non-conventional radiation therapy techniques that fall outside standard IMRT/VMAT workflows. Residents study the physical principles, planning methodologies, and QA requirements for Gamma Knife radiosurgery, spatially fractionated radiation therapy (SFRT/GRID), and both conventional and VMAT-based total body irradiation (TBI). Alongside these procedures, residents receive one-on-one instruction in proton therapy physics, which encompasses proton delivery systems, intensity-modulated proton therapy planning with a strict emphasis on robustness, beam modeling, proton-specific QA activities, and proton shielding and safety.
Rotation 7: Radiation Safety / Regulations (1 Month)
This rotation introduces critical radiation safety topics, primarily focusing on the NCRP 151 formalism for LINAC vault shielding design. Residents also perform specialized radiation safety assessments, such as calculating doses for pregnant patients and patients with implanted pacemakers.
Rotation 8: Reserve/Flex (2 Months)
This rotation serves as a dedicated buffer to ensure residents can complete any prior unfinished rotations within the strict 24-month timeline without an extension. If all prior competencies are met, residents may utilize this time for research, clinical projects, enhancing routine clinical skills, or conducting an external site visit to gain experience in procedures not offered at the Stephenson Cancer Center.
Clinical Research
Research training is not explicitly offered as part of this two-year clinical residency. However, physics/clinical radiation oncology research projects will be available as part of the clinical rotations.
Didactic Training
Clinical conferences, seminars, small discussion groups, journal clubs and one-on-one instruction are all an integral part of the program. The resident participates in the following:
- Journal club seminar at the Department of Radiation Oncology
- Journal club seminar at the Graduate Medical Physics Program
- Radiation Oncology Chart Rounds
- Medical Physics and Dosimetry meetings
- Assigned readings
The following graduate level courses, which are offered in our CAMPEP approved graduate medical physics program, are required (if the resident has already taken any of the courses mentioned below before joining the program, the resident will get a waiver following submission of sufficient proof to the Director of the program):
- Physics of Radiation Therapy
- Introduction to Radiation Biology
- Production and Absorption of Ionizing Radiation
- Anatomy & Physiology
- Radiation Measurements