Duke Cancer Care Experience: a longitudinal, multidisciplinary oncology curriculum for medical students

BACKGROUND: Cancer prevalence continues to rise in the United States with a projected shortage of oncologists in the workforce. Despite this need, medical schools often lack oncology-focused education in their curriculum. Duke's Cancer Care Experience (CCE) is a multi-disciplinary elective designed to meet the growing demand for highly competent, compassionate, and diverse physicians of all medical specialties who are aware of the unique needs of patients diagnosed with cancer. CCE integrates principles of adult learning theory to increase learner engagement and prioritize knowledge retention of cancer care principles. METHODS: This single-group pre-post educational evaluation assessed first-year medical students enrolled in the Cancer Care Experience (CCE) using pre- and post-program electronic surveys administered via Qualtrics. Students in each cohort participated in workshops, lectures, case-based learning exercises, and longitudinal clinical shadowing experiences. Pre- and post-program surveys were administered to students, assessing career interests and self-efficacy within various aspects of oncology-related competencies, and completed an abbreviated IRI-derived empathy measure adapted from the AAMC Y2Q/GQ format. Participation was voluntary, and responses were anonymized. Data was collected from 2023-2025 to assess impacts over time. RESULTS: Among enrolled students, 36/40 (90%) in 2023 and 39/40 (98%) in 2024 completed both pre- and post-program surveys. Post-program mean comfort ratings were higher than pre-program ratings across all 15 surveyed cancer care topics in both cohorts, with absolute increases ranging from 15.90 to 41.95 points in 2023 and 11.03 to 34.06 points in 2024. On post-program evaluation, students rated the course highly for clerkship preparation, clinical shadowing, and breakout sessions, and many reported that the program influenced how they approached patients and their anticipated career choice. In a 2025 follow-up survey, 50.7% (36/71) of respondents reported anticipating a career in oncology, 74.6% (53/71) said CCE had influenced their thinking about career choice, and 98.6% (70/71) said they would recommend the course to other students. CONCLUSIONS: Participation in the CCE was associated with higher post-program self-reported confidence across multiple evaluated cancer care domains. Respondents noted that the course played a role in shaping their understanding of oncology, and in some cases, their career interest. Although these findings should be interpreted as exploratory and descriptive given the single-group design and self-reported outcomes, the results still suggest that this model may serve as a scalable framework for integrating oncology education into pre-clinical medical curricula.