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Fox Chase Cancer Center Receives Highly Competitive Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation 2007 Interdisciplinary Breast Fellowship Award

PHILADELPHIA (June 1, 2006) -Fox Chase Cancer Center has been selected to receive a Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation 2007 Interdisciplinary Breast Fellowship Awards. Each award consists of two consecutive, $35,000 one-year fellowships. The fellowships are designed to prepare highly motivated, talented and compassionate physicians for careers devoted to serving the specialized needs of breast cancer patients. Fox Chases Monica Morrow, M.D., chairman of surgery, is the grant leader. The award is designated for a future Fox Chase fellow to mentor and provide advance medical training.

The Komen Foundation established its Interdisciplinary Breast Fellowship program in 1998. Collaborations with the American Society of Breast Diseases, the American Society of Breast Surgeons and the Society of Surgical Oncology resulted in a comprehensive and highly integrated curriculum that allows each fellow to spend substantial time in key areas that impact breast cancer patients.

As part of the program, the fellow is required to do medical rotations in breast imaging, breast surgery, community service and outreach, genetics, medical oncology, pathology, plastic and reconstructive surgery, psycho-oncology, radiation oncology and research.

"Physicians who participate in Komen's Interdisciplinary Breast Fellowship program gain enhanced clinical skills, a deeper and more practical understanding of medical teamwork and they are able to offer a better, more compassionate treatment environment for their patients," said Rebecca Garcia, PhD, vice president, health sciences for the Komen Foundation.

In addition to Fox Chase, three other institutions received Komen Interdisciplinary Breast Fellowship awards for 2007 through 2009: Baylor College of Medicine, Houston; University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW), Dallas; and Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Conn. The grant period for the fellowship begins in July 2007 and runs through June 30, 2009. The four institutions receiving the fellowships will now begin recruiting qualified candidates for the interdisciplinary training program.