Fellowship Details & Requirements

Our GME Office has preliminary eligibility requirements that all prospective trainees must meet before applying for a training program at our institution. In addition to these criteria, our program also has the following requirements:

• Be board-certified or eligible in pediatric hematology/oncology or immunology.
• Have completed a residency in pediatrics or combined pediatrics / internal medicine and demonstrate a high level of clinical competence

Candidates will be selected based on clinical experience, references, performance on examinations and prior achievements; i.e., presentations and/or publications.

References should be provided to demonstrate proficiency during prior clinical training. All available standardized tests (e.g., USMLE/ABP exams) will be reviewed.

• Original application form
• Curriculum Vitae
• Personal Statement
• USMLE 1 & 2 (and Step 3 if available) or COMLEX transcripts and scores
• Three Letters of Recommendation

Timeline: The Application process lasts from August through October. The accepted applicants will start July 1 of the following year.

Additional Information

Compensation: GME Stipend Levels 
Benefits: Graduate Medical Education Trainee Manual

Vacation: 4 weeks

The Pediatric Stem Cell Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Fellowship  provides 12 months of advanced training for physicians who have completed fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology. Fellows gain the knowledge and skills necessary for independent practice in  pediatric stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy (SCT-CT), including clinical care, research,and multidisciplinary collaboration.

Goals and Objectives

The goals of the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant- Cellular Therapy (SCT-CT) fellowship are:

• Provide an opportunity for trainees in pediatric hematology/oncology and pediatric immunology to obtain in-depth training in SCT-CT to graduate new pediatric SCT-CT physicians while taking advantage of our expert faculty and variety of patients.
• Provide and document training that will meet the guidelines for accreditation by Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT) as an attending physician in an SCT-CT program. 
• This fellowship will serve the needs of the field of pediatric SCT-CT by training new pediatric SCT-CT physicians to provide patient care and will serve the needs of pediatric hematology/oncology fellows for further training in pediatric SCT-CT.

Specific Objectives 

1. Patient Care

• Perform comprehensive evaluations of patients pre-, peri-, and post-transplant.
• Demonstrate proficiency in procedures such as bone marrow harvest, apheresis and photopheresis.
• Diagnose and manage transplant-related complications including GVHD, veno-occlusive disease and cellular therapy toxicities.
• Develop individualized treatment and supportive care plans.
• Provide compassionate, patient- and family-centered care.

2. Medical Knowledge

• Demonstrate an in-depth understanding of transplantation immunology, donor selection, conditioning regimens and cellular therapies.
• Apply evidence-based medicine to pediatric SCT-CT management.
• Acquire knowledge of FACT accreditation requirements and standards.
• Demonstrate familiarity with research protocols and contribute to ongoing clinical/translational studies.

3. Systems-Based Practice

• Collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary teams (nursing, pharmacy, laboratory, radiation oncology, etc.).
• Identify and address system-level barriers to safe, efficient patient care.
• Utilize institutional resources to ensure cost-effective care.
• Participate in safety and quality improvement initiatives within the pediatric SCT-CT program.

4. Practice-Based Learning and Improvement

• Incorporate feedback from faculty and peers into daily clinical practice.
• Critically appraise scientific literature and apply findings to patient management.
• Participate in research or scholarly activity, such as case reports or clinical projects.
• Present outcomes and findings at conferences or divisional meetings.

5. Professionalism

• Demonstrate integrity, accountability, and respect in all patient and professional interactions.
• Adhere to ethical principles and institutional standards.
• Maintain timely and accurate documentation.
• Respect patient confidentiality and cultural diversity in care delivery.

6. Interpersonal & Communication Skills

• Communicate clearly and effectively with patients, families and the health care team.
• Provide education and guidance to residents, medical students and other trainees.
• Deliver difficult information with empathy and professionalism.
• Exhibit leadership and teamwork in high-stakes situations.

Patient Care Responsibilities 

Patient care duties will be focused on patients undergoing SCT-CT, providing opportunities to work on specific challenging cases and diagnoses appropriate to the focus. Fellows will participate in inpatient service and attend outpatient clinics at UT MD Anderson.

Supervision

All trainees in this program practice under the supervision of subspecialty faculty and the program director until milestone evaluations can provide sufficient confidence in the fellows’ ability to operate independently. Supervision includes, but is not limited to: confirming histories and physical examination of patients with supervisors, defining patient problem lists, discussing therapeutic options, developing plans of care, ensuring complex diagnostic and invasive procedures are properly supervised and executed and ensuring that operative or high-risk procedures have a post-procedure note to include all relevant factors. Emergent situations the fellow is permitted to do everything possible to save the life of a patient or save them from serious harm. The appropriate physician should be contacted as soon as possible. Additionally, the trainee will comply with any and all additional instructions in the supervision policy of the program not herein listed.

Educational Experiences

Rotation Schedule:

This program provides a tailored experience focusing on SCT-CT. The schedule for the 12 months clinical fellowship program is:

• Four to five months inpatient SCT-CT settings at:
  • Children’s Cancer Hospital
    First month will be learning the basics of transplantation; next two months includeparticipating in the decision making process. Afterwards, trainees will spend one or two months participating as pre-attending.
  • Four to five months outpatient clinics  
    Objective of this part of the training will be for the fellow to develop confidence making decisions and independently managing these patients, including those with apheresis and graft versus host disease. Faculty will teach, guide and monitor the fellow with decision making process.
  • Two weeks subspeciality clinic 
    Fellow will explore a topic based on personalnterest and focus, such as radiation oncology.
  • Two-week laboratory training/education 
    Training and education topics includes: stem cell procurement, stem cell processing, HLA typing and GMP training.
  • Two weeks for travel 
    Attend cellular therapy related scientific/national conference meetings and to prepare results of research project.
  • Four weeks of vacation

Summary of Educational Experiences

During this fellowship, the educational focus will be on stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy. In these areas, the trainee may: follow and conduct rounds, formulate daily plans, review all roadmaps,and be present to facilitate hand-off. They will be allowed to provide supervised patient care as an educational experience and conduct research under a senior investigator. Additionally, there are numerous didactics, boards, meetings and other educational events at which all trainees will be required to participate and present.

Didactics

Fellows will attend and present at the following educational conferences:

• Tumor Board (monthly)
• Fellows’ Lecture Series (weekly)
• Specialized PEDI SCT-CT Team Meetings (weekly)
• SCT Inpatient Meeting (weekly, when on service)
• CARTOX Conference (weekly)

Fellows are expected to present at journal club, participate in case discussions and contribute to the pediatric SCT-CT scholarly community.

Assessment Methods

Methods of assessment include direct feedback, formal evaluation, milestones evaluation, clinical competency committee meetings and semi-annual formal evaluations with the trainee to discuss milestones progress and trainee competency in clinic and research.

ACGME Milestones are used as the metric by which competency in specific areas is assessed for each trainee. This evaluation is given out on a regular basis in order to measure the trainee’s progress in growing levels of autonomy. At the end of the fellowship, the trainee is given a final assessment that will encapsulate the entirety of the fellow’s experience, and a final judgment of their ability to operate in their subspecialty with autonomy and lead independent research projects.

Required Supplementary Education

Supplementary Training, Reading and Resources:

N/A

Didactic/Conference Schedule:

• Tumor Board: Monthly, mandatory and organized by the Pediatrics division
• Fellows' Lecture Series: Weekly, mandatory and organized by the Pediatrics division
• Specialized Clinical Team Meeting: Weekly, mandatory and organized by the Pediatrics division
• SCT Inpatient Meeting: Weekly, mandatory when on inpatient service and organized by the Stem Cell Transplant division 
• CARTOX: Weekly, mandatory and organized by the Stem Cell Transplant divsion

Research Requirements:

Fellows are expected to participate in a clinical research project under the guidance and mentorship of a primary investigator.

Distribution and Review  

The entire curriculum is reviewed annually by the Pediatric Clinical Practice Committee and Executive Leadership Committee, and drafts are produced by the faculty and program director that participate in providing education and supervision to the program. Drafts are circulated and approved by the committees, with the final drafts being approved by the Deputy Division Head. 

Evaluation

Fellows will be evaluated through:

• Direct observation and feedback from faculty.
• Completion of milestone-based evaluations in New Innovations.
• Semi-annual Clinical Competency Committee review and feedback sessions.
• Documentation of research activity and scholarly presentations.
• Final summative evaluation at completion of fellowship, assessing readiness for independent practice.

Fan, A. E., Vasconez, W. Andres, Ramakrishnan, R., Tewari, P., Olson, A., Shpall, E. J., & Sheikh, I. N. (2025). Post-Transplant Cyclophosphamide for Graft-Versus-Host Disease Prophylaxis in Pediatric Stem Cell Transplantation. Pediatric Blood & Cancer, 72(12), e32061. DOI: 10.1002/pbc.32061. 

Mullen C.A., Petropoulos D., Roberts W.M., Rytting M., Zipf T., Chan K.W., Culbert S.J., Danielson M., Jeha S.S., Kuttesch J.F., Rolston K.V. Economic and resource utilization analysis of outpatient management of fever and neutropenia in low-risk pediatric patients with cancer. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 1999;21(3):212–218. 

Komanduri K.V., St John L.S., de Lima M., McMannis J., Rosinski S., McNiece I., Bryan S.G., Kaur I., Martin S., Wieder E.D., Worth L., Cooper L.J., Petropoulos D., Molldrem J.J., Champlin R.E., Shpall E.J. Delayed immune reconstitution after cord blood transplantation is characterized by impaired thymopoiesis and late memory T cell skewing. Blood. 2007;110(13):4543-51. 

Safdar A., Rodriguez G.H., De Lima M.J., Petropoulos D., Chemaly R.F., Worth L.L., Shpall E.J., Rolston K.V., Raad I.I., Chan K.W., Champlin R.E. Infections in 100 cord blood transplantations: spectrum of early and late posttransplant infections in adult and pediatric patients 1996-2005. Medicine (Baltimore). 2007;86(6):324-33.

Petropoulos D. MENIN MAINTENANCE THERAPY FOR ACUTE LEUKEMIA. Blood Advances. 2025. (co-author)

Sheikh I.N., Roth M., Stavinoha P.L. Prevalence of Sleep Disturbances in Pediatric Cancer Patients and Their Diagnosis and Management. Children (Basel). 2021;8(12):1100. 

Sheikh I.N., Miller J., Shoberu B., Andersen C.R., Wang J., Williams L.A., Mahadeo K.M., Robert R. Using the MDASI-Adolescent for Early Symptom Identification and Mitigation of Symptom Impact on Daily Living in Adolescent and Young Adult Stem Cell Transplant Patients. Children. 2022;9(1):19. 

Munir F., Hardit V., Sheikh I.N., AlQahtani S., He J., Cuglievan B., Hosing C., Tewari P., Khazal S. Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma: From Past to Future — A Comprehensive Review of Pathophysiology and Therapeutic Advances. Int J Mol Sci. 2023;24(12). 

Fan A.E., AlQahtani S., Garnes N.D., Tewari P., Petropoulos D., Khazal S., Mahadeo K., DePriest P., Sheikh I.N. Bezlotoxumab as Treatment for Recurrent/Chronic Clostridioides difficile Infection in Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant Recipients: A Multi-Institutional Experience. Pediatr Blood & Cancer. 2025. 

Fellows in Pediatric Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy gain access to unmatched clinical volume, multidisciplinary mentorship and innovative cellular-therapy research opportunities across UT MD Anderson’s pediatric and immunotherapy programs. 

In addition to gaining unparalleled education and training experience, UT MD Anderson trainees have access to exceptional resources and benefits to help them build meaningful careers and lead fulfilling lives.

Institutional benefits and support

GME trainees’ salary stipends are updated every year based on the ACGME’s recommendations, and because our trainees are considered workforce members, they also enjoy UT MD Anderson’s employee benefits, including health insurance, retirement planning, disability insurance and six weeks of parental leave.

Our GME House Staff Senate offers trainees the opportunity to experience a leadership role in a medical field career, and the institution’s Academic Mentoring Council provides avenues to secure tailored academic mentoring from faculty. Our GME trainees benefit from the extensive support offered to our research trainees, too; they are invited to participate in grant application workshops, apply for pilot grants to support their research ideas and receive monetary awards for securing extramural grant funding.

Trainee wellness is also of utmost importance at UT MD Anderson.

Our trainees have access to UT MD Anderson’s employee networks, fitness center and other wellness resources provided by the institution. Additionally, our Graduate Medical Education Committee (GMEC), which provides oversight of our accredited programs, regularly assess our trainees’ needs and implements various initiatives, such as providing free call meals and discounted parking to GME House Staff, to address those gaps. The committee even has a subcommittee entirely dedicated to supporting the wellness of our trainees.

Our efforts to ensure a welcoming and supportive education and training experience have been commended nationally. In 2023, the Office of Graduate Medical Education received the DeWitt C. Baldwin, Jr. Award, a prestigious national award that recognizes our institution for its respectful and supportive environment for delivering medical education and patient care.

Beyond UT MD Anderson

UT MD Anderson’s location has many benefits, too. Our main campus is nestled inside the Texas Medical Center, the world’s largest medical center which boasts about 10 million patient encounters each year. Many of our faculty are involved in interorganizational research collaborations, both within the TMC and across the nation, exposing trainees to groundbreaking advancements in medical care in real time.

Most importantly, the city of Houston is a great place to call home and raise a family. We are one of the most culturally diverse cities in the nation. More than 145 different languages are spoken across the city, placing us behind only New York and Los Angeles. In fact, about 30% of the city’s population speaks a language other than English at home. And, paychecks here stretch farther than most U.S. metro areas, thanks to our low cost of living.

Visit our Why Houston page to learn more about our city’s affordable housing, fine dining, entertainment scene, nationally renowned museums and other great attributes.