The UC Davis Department of Radiation Oncology offers a four-year residency program in radiation oncology. The residency fulfills all requirements of the American Board of Radiology and is fully accredited by the American Medical Association's Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Residents train at the UC Davis Cancer Center and the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. Prior to starting the radiation oncology residency, candidates must successfully complete their PGY-1 training in internal medicine, general surgery or a comparable field in an ACGME accredited program.

The mission of our program is to train academic radiation oncologists in a multi-disciplinary cancer program. Although we aim to train academicians, those who decide not to stay in academics will find themselves well-prepared for community practice. The community-based portion of our program, still in development, will train radiation oncologists who aspire to work in community-based clinics.

Janice Ryu, M.D.
Professor, Radiation Oncology

Residents do three-month clinical rotations for the first three years. In each rotation, residents train under one or two attending physicians with expertise in at least one disease-specific site. These service-focused rotations enable one-on-one teaching and learning.  Residents also get essential, hands-on training in an intensive physics/dosimetry/treatment planning rotation.

Our faculty of four radiation oncologists, five medical physicists and one radiobiologist participate in the training and supervision of residents in the classroom, the laboratory and the clinic. Residents attend and participate in numerous weekly conferences, presentations, and workshops. Four mornings a week, residents attend a teaching and patient management conference. On Mondays and Wednesdays, a physics faculty member presents physics didactic lectures and on Fridays, a radiobiology faculty member presents a radiobiology lecture. The residents also attend chart rounds, participate on tumor boards, and present at Journal Club. Our residents also have the opportunity to attend multidisciplinary clinics, which vary according to the service they are on at the time.

The majority of the present UC Davis Cancer Center-based training involves state-of-the-art Elekta Synergy-based and Tomotherapy-based image-guided external beam radiotherapy, intensity modulated radiotherapy, low- and high-dose rate brachytherapy and stereotactic radiosurgery. In addition, residents have an opportunity to go off-site in elective rotations for a total of two months. For example, residents may choose to spend their elective in the UC San Francisco’s pediatric oncology program, diagnostic radiology, hematology-oncology, and/or the UC Davis radioimmunotherapy program. There is also an opportunity to do an elective for treatment of ocular melanoma at the Proton Center on the Davis campus. Eventually, our residents will also have the opportunity to gain experience in a broad range of clinical venues through rotations at the university’s outreach cancer centers.

Residents undertake six to nine months of research usually after the initial three years of clinical training. If residents do clinical research, they may complete it in  three-month rotations throughout their residency. All residents do laboratory (basic bench) or clinical research,nbsp;depending on the aptitude of the individual residents. The type of research is individualized and results from discussions among the resident, the program director, the education committee and the chairman. Radiation oncology research space is available on site. Basic research opportunities will not be limited to radiation research, but will be open to any cancer-related laboratory programs associated with the School of Medicine, Cancer Center, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory or the campus in Davis.

All residents are encouraged to participate in clinical research during their residency, and should produce at least one paper from the clinical research during their first three years in addition to one or two original articles from their final research block. Residents will be expected to make at least one oral or poster presentation at ASTRO, ASCO or another national or international conference.

Thank you for your interest in the UC Davis radiation oncology residency training program. Although ours is a fairly new residency program, our department’s outstanding faculty, state-of-the-art technology, and commitment to teaching, research and excellent patient care make the process of obtaining a residency position highly competitive.

To apply, you should first contact your medical school Dean’s office to access the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) Web-based application since we participate in ERAS. After reviewing your completed application, we will send invitations for interviews by e-mail.

Interview sessions will be held in December and January. We accept through the National Resident Match Program (NRMP).

If you have any questions about the application procedure, please call Megan Rott, our residency coordinator, (916) 734-7888.

Deadline for receipt of all application materials is November 1st.