The effectiveness of the Ivan H. Smith Memorial Studentships program on encouraging medical students to pursue a career in radiation oncology.

Background: Founded in 1963, the Ivan H. Smith Memorial Studentship (ISMS) is a summer program that familiarizes students with the work of several cancer centers and aims to attract medical students into oncology.

Methods: In this study, we attempted to evaluate the impact of the ISMS Program on career choice in radiation oncology (RO).

Breast disease and undergraduate medical education: a randomized trial to assess the effect of a home study module on medical student performance.

Background: This study sought to demonstrate the effectiveness of a home study module (HSM) on student performance at a large urban medical school.

Method: Second-year students were randomized to receive: 1) a HSM in addition to regular teaching of clinical breast examination or, 2) the regular teaching alone. The HSM included adult learning principles, problem-based learning, and practice guidelines.

Risk-adapted therapy for clinical stage I-II Hodgkin's disease: 7-years results of radiotherapy alone for low-risk disease, and ABVD and radiotherapy for high-risk disease.

Treatment outcomes were documented for 204 adult patients with clinical Stage I-II Hodgkin's disease who were treated with risk-adapted ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine and dacarbazine) and radiotherapy (RT) at the Toronto-Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre between 1984 and 1994. Forty-nine patients with clinical Stage I disease (excluding bulky mediastinal presentations) and 50 patients with a combination of clinical Stage IIA disease, age 50 years or less, and favourable pathology (lymphocyte predominant or nodular sclerosing histology) were identified as low risk and treated with RT alone to 35 Gy. One hundred and five high-risk patients were treated with chemotherapy (86 with ABVD) followed by RT to 25 Gy.