Neuro-Oncology Fellowship

The Neuro-Oncology Fellowship program offers a rich curriculum that covers all areas of neuro-oncology in a multidisciplinary setting and offers strong clinical and laboratory research opportunities.

The fellowship is the only program of its kind in Orange County that affords our fellows exposure to an array of primary and metastatic brain tumors, in addition to neurological complications of cancer. The neuro-oncology group at UCI Health is one of the largest in the region and includes medical neurological oncologists, neurological surgeons, neuroradiologists, neuropathologists and radiation oncologists. Our faculty is involved in multiple clinical trials in addition to basic science and translational research in neurological oncology.

The first year of training covers all areas of curriculum required for United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties certification. An optional second year offers an opportunity to focus on either clinical or laboratory research. Fellows are exposed to an extensive variety of inpatient and outpatient neuro-oncology settings and will participate in formal multidisciplinary discussions at a weekly tumor board meeting.

The program’s clinical and research activity is centered at UCI Medical Center, which has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report annually for the past 16 years as one of America’s “Best Hospitals,” “High Performing Hospitals,” and “Best Regional Hospitals,” ranking number 10 in California and number five in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. In addition, U.S. News & World Report has ranked the UCI Health program in cancer as “High Performing.”

How to Apply

Applications for the Neuro-Oncology Fellowship are accepted through SF Match. Applicants must have completed a residency in neurology or neurological surgery, or an oncology fellowship, and be eligible for a California medical license prior to the July 1 program start date.

Xiao-Tang Kong, MD, PhD, received her MD from the Keck School of Medicine at University of Southern California in 2008. She completed her neurology residency training at UC Irvine in 2012 and her neuro-oncology fellowship training at UCLA in 2013. She joined the UC Irvine neuro-oncology program in 2015 and is a professor at UC Irvine. Her interests include diagnosing and treating patients with primary brain tumors, metastatic cancers to CNS, neurological complications from cancer or treatments, paraneoplastic syndrome and rare CNS diseases. Kong also conducts multiple clinical trials to treat CNS tumors. Prior to coming to the United States, she was awarded her doctoral degree in pediatrics at Capital Medical University in Beijing, China, and her PhD in the molecular biology of cancer at the University of Tokyo in Japan.