A Message from Our Team

A Message from Our Team

In collaboration with VCU’s Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Division of Gynecologic Oncology is dedicated to the patient-centric care of women with and at risk for cancers of the reproductive tract including uterine, ovarian, cervical, vaginal, vulvar and trophoblastic.

Gynecologic oncology provides unique continuity of patient care by delivering both surgical and chemotherapeutic treatments to our patients, and we do so in collaboration with a multi-disciplinary team that includes medical, surgical and radiation oncology, pathology, cancer genetics and radiology. We are committed to bringing the most current evidence-based treatments to Central Virginia’s diverse population, while collaborating nationally and internationally to develop tomorrow’s treatments through clinical trials of novel therapeutics and surgical innovation.

Education

The field of OB/GYN offers tremendous variety in the day-to-day work, with endless opportunities for both academic specialists and subspecialists. We are proud to educate and train the next generation of physicians and researchers through our competitive residency program, which includes extensive time in labor and delivery and rotations in areas such as family planning, acute care and ambulatory OB/GYN clinics.

Opportunities for Medical Students

We are excited to host third-year and fourth-year medical students in our service.

Third-year students participate in rounds, clinic and the operating room, and the rotation includes weekly didactic teaching. We invite fourth-year students to participate in our month-long acting internship (AI), with preference, given to VCU students and those at institutions without gynecologic oncology programs.

To advance the field of gynecologic oncology and provide the latest innovations in patient care, our team participates in extensive clinical and translational research.

We are excited to partner with residents on their projects, with a broad range of research areas including the following:

Volume of lymphatic metastasis in cervical cancer: Does size matter?
Implicit gender bias in surgeons
Feedback and teacher level; association between experience and quality of feedback.
Genetic counseling referrals for gynecologic oncology: Are we missing opportunities?

Translational research opportunities within the division include a clinical and pathological examination of molecular risk factors in endometrial cancer, and the clinical pathologic expression of cell cycle regulatory complexes in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma.