Behavioral Oncology Education & Career Development

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This proposal is the second competitive renewal application in response to PAR #06-511 (NCI Cancer Education and Career Development Program). In accordance with the program announcement, we are seeking continued funding for a curriculum-dependent program first funded in September 2003 (R25CA090314) that trains postdoctoral candidates in cancer research settings that are highly interdisciplinary and collaborative. Our program focuses on training cancer scientists in behavioral oncology research, a field that clearly requires training in collaborative and interdisciplinary settings. The program is built upon extensive and productive collaborations among researchers in behavioral science, population science, epidemiology, biostatistics, nutrition, nursing, and medicine. A key feature of this program has been the development of a specialized curriculum in behavioral oncology that was not otherwise available at our institution and is linked in an essential manner to the training goals and objectives of the program. This specialized curriculum consists of a core curriculum that is required for both first-year and second-year trainees and an elective curriculum, designed to provide individualized training, that is selected by each trainee in conjunction with his/her training committee. Over the past five years, the program has been successful in attracting a talented and diverse pool of applicants, recruiting the best applicants from this pool, and providing the trainees recruited with the skills and experiences necessary for becoming successful independent investigators in the field of behavioral oncology. Funding will allow us to build upon our prior success and prepare additional trainees for careers as independent investigators in behavioral oncology.