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The rapid growth of the physician assistant (PA) profession has required PA programs to increase their efforts in the recruitment and retention of experienced faculty. One approach was the establishment of the academic fellowship concept in 1998. Since then, 5 PA programs have designed fellowships, 3 of which were implemented and graduated fellows. To institute and develop an academic fellowship takes time, resources, and buy-in from faculty and students. The structure of the curricula within the fellowships has been similar since 1998 and includes faculty development opportunities, lecture development and delivery, student assessment, small group facilitation, interprofessional education, and committee work. Most fellowship-trained educators have entered faculty positions after completion of their fellowship. They appear to use sound educational strategies in their teaching and are successful in their scholarly productivity. Academic fellowships are just one route in the transition to PA education, and while they may require a significant investment from the sponsoring institution and program, they can provide a unique opportunity for PAs to immerse themselves in the faculty experience before the full commitment to a career change.

A randomized study was designed to determine the effect of intermittent oral cyclophosphamide on the rate of metastases in children with localized and regional neuroblastoma. Secondary objectives of the study were to determine the value of the proposed staging system, to measure the influence of the peripheral lymphocyte count on prognosis, and to study the effect of the primary tumor site and regional node involvement. Since there was no difference in survival in the two groups of patients, whether or not they received chemotherapy, all 113 children were treated as a single group for the analysis of the secondary objectives. The proposed staging served as a good indicator of prognosis with a significant difference in survival seen between each of three stages. It was not possible to detect a significant influence by the three other prognostic variables studied, peripheral lymphocytes, primary site and regional node involvement. Small numbers in the various subgroups studied may account for the failure of differences to achieve statistical significance.

A randomized study was conducted to determine the effect of cyclophosphamide on the rate of recurrence and metastases in children with localized and regional neuroblastoma. One hundred and thirty-four patients were entered and 113 were suitable for analysis. All patients had surgical resection of the primary tumor when possible, postoperative irradiation to the tumor bed when indicated for gross residual disease, and 49/113 received cyclophosphamide, 10 mg/kg/day orally for 7-10 days every 28 days for 1 year. A difference was found in the rate of metastases between the patients who did and did not receive chemotherapy; the overall survival of about 80% in both groups was better than anticipated. All relapses occurred during the first year; there were none in 27 Stage I patients, 8/52 in Stage II and 13/34 in Stage III. Toxicity was minimal, with only two patients developing hemorrhagic cystitis that prevented continued therapy.