The Surgical Oncology Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh began as predominantly a research fellowship. We have a strong history of development of biologic therapies for cancer. The strong basic research focus in biologic therapy has continued and numerous opportunities exist for the fellows to participate in basic science research. The laboratory faculty includes Dr. Walter Storkus, who is a full professor, full-time Ph.D. within the division, with numerous projects involving dendritic cell vaccines and cytokine gene therapy. Dr. Bartlett has brought his laboratory from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is developing tumor-selective replicating viruses for cancer treatment. Dr. Andrea Gambotto has developed an NIH vector core facility for the production of plasmid DNA, adenovirus, and retroviruses, which can be utilized in all forms of research. Dr. Pawel Kalinski is studying the interactions between T-cells and dendritic cells.

In addition to the basic research opportunities there is an enormous volume of patients available for clinical research opportunities. The majority of fellows become involved in clinical projects based on their focus within surgical oncology. A mentorship program has been developed such that every fellow will be assigned a clinical mentor for development of at least one clinical protocol and one clinical paper during the two years of fellowship. This is to teach the fellow some of the skills involved in clinical research.

The overall goals of the division are to develop novel biologic therapies and translate these therapies into the clinical realm in patients with metastatic solid tumors. The fulfillment of this goal provides an excellent opportunity for the fellows in this program to learn about these new therapies and the art of clinical translational research.