The primary mission of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is to make a strong impact for patients through research-driven patient care, education and prevention;the entire institution is dedicated to the conduct of basic, translational and clinical research focused on cancer. There is a severe shortfall of medical oncologists who are capable of and conduct of clinical trials to improve prevention, detection and treatment of human cancer, a comprehensive study of clinically-relevant problems, successful design and very importantly, the translation of fundamental knowledge and new technologies between the laboratory, clinic and community. To succeed in these areas, we must provide adequate protected time and strong mentorship in an organized training program, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center is well-suited to host a comprehensive training program that has the capability to ameliorate the severity of this shortfall. The ultimate objective of the Research Training in Academic Medical Oncology training program is to train and nurture medical oncology fellows to ensure they are equipped to become the next leaders in every aspect of academic medical oncology. The training program proposed herein provides two research training tracks for medical oncologists. The first track, the Clinician/lnvestigator track, provides training focused on development and conduct of clinical trials and associated correlative studies. The second track, the Physician/Scientist tract provides training for laboratory-based oncology research. Fellows who complete this training program through participation in either of these two tracks will be eligible for certification in the medical oncology sub-specialty and will be able to not only provide the best medical oncology care available, but also develop and lead independent research programs, conduct hypothesis-driven research, communicate their research findings through public presentation and publication in peer-reviewed journals, and obtain peer-reviewed grant support for their work. To ensure success of the training program, 100% of the program faculty have peer-reviewed support for cancer research programs and are actively conducting clinical and/or laboratory-based cancer research, consistently publish in the best journals, have demonstrated their mentorship abilities, and actively manage successful research programs. Importantly, the program faculty members recognize the importance of training the next generation of cancer researchers and commit to providing the crucial mentored training program that will lead to important advances in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.