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The Fellows’ Forecast: What First-Timers Expect at ASCO
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Released: May 28, 2025

Expiration: May 27, 2026

John Marshall
John Marshall, MD
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The Fellows’ Forecast: What First-Timers Expect at ASCO

 

John Marshall, MD: Hey everybody, John Marshall for Oncology Unscripted. We are getting all ready to go to ASCO and we thought it would be really interesting to talk to some people who are going to ASCO who have never been. I was thinking back, my first ASCO was in a year that started with 19, just to give you an idea, and it used to rotate around different cities. Been at Chicago, same place, same bat channel every year for many, many years at this point.

 

I was actually able to coerce some of our fellows who are making their first trip ever to ASCO to come on and for a quick interview, introduce themselves, give us some thoughts about what they're anticipating, and then if they're nice enough, maybe we'll grab 'em after ASCO to see what they learned and what was different than what they were expecting. So, listen in folks for what, you might reflect back as to what you thought before you went to your first ASCO.

 

Tina, introduce yourself and maybe give us one word of what's ringing around your head about what you're anticipating for ASCO.

 

Tina Roy, MD: Hi, I am Tina. I'm one of the second-year fellows at Georgetown, second year hematology oncology fellow. I did med school back in Scranton, Pennsylvania at Geisinger, and I did residency and now fellowship here. The one word that, I think of is, overwhelming because of how packed it is.

 

John Marshall, MD: That one's gonna come true. That one's gonna come true. Christian, introduce yourself. Give us your thoughts.

 

Christian Agbisit, MD: I went to med school in the Philippines, but then my residency in Illinois, and then ended up in Georgetown for fellowship. And my word is something big is at ASCO.

 

John Marshall, MD: Good. I think big, it will feel that way for sure. And last, but not least, Nikita.

 

Nikita Chintapally, MD: Hi everyone. My name's Nikita. I went to medical school in India at Kasturba Medical College, did my residency here in DC, and happy to be at Georgetown. I'm a first-year heme/onc fellow. My word for ASCO, as I'm a baby fellow, I still like to think of, is just ready to get inspired, I guess.

 

John Marshall, MD: That's awesome. And, let me tell all of you out there listening, and these are three of the smartest people. It's such an honor to work with these folks who have dedicated their entire lives and they know so much more than old people know, and I'm dependent upon them. And they're great partners for us, and they're nice enough to spend time with us. Actually, I snuck  them out of somebody else's clinic right now to do this, so, I'm in trouble with their current clinic mentors. But anyway, let's get right into it.

 

Tina, let me pick on you first. When I first went to ASCO, I thought it was all about fun. I wanted a hotel with a good pool, in the, in the range of fun versus work. Where do you think this is gonna be? What's your impression of what it's gonna be?

 

Tina Roy, MD: I think it's going to be in the middle. Work because there's so many different events to go to. I've tried to make my schedule multiple times already and I can't decide for some of the sessions which ones to even go to. So, I think I'm going to even have to watch some, like on demand after. And then fun, there's a bunch of dinners planned already. I am planning on getting deep dish pizza, So, I think there'll be, it'll be fun too.

 

John Marshall, MD: There is a lot of fun. There is booze involved at ASCO. Sleep is not one of the big things. Christian, work-fun. Where are you in this balance? Here?

 

Christian Agbisit, MD: Yeah, I think it's gonna be both. Basically, because I'm graduating and going into a community practice, I wanted to kind of soak in all the new stuff.

 

John Marshall, MD: I wanna come back to you maybe afterwards about the community practice piece because you'll notice just that there aren't many community practitioners who go to ASCO but do get a feel for that when you're there. As you look at that, because it becomes not worth it to community docs to go to ASCO, which is always one of—and they go to best of ASCOs on a Saturday somewhere, later. So, I'd be interested in your feedback on that of the value that you see, as a rising community practitioner, in the future.

 

Nikita, where are you? Work fun.

 

Nikita Chintapally, MD: I am hoping it's more on the spectrum of fun for me. I'm hoping to, you know, do maybe meet some people, meet other fellows, happy to just branch out, network in any way possible. I'm really excited to see more people do like oral presentations. I think it'll be really inspiring, and it'll be a good way to get a sense of how people present their work in an effective way. So, I think that's what I'm looking forward to the most.

 

John Marshall, MD: One of my partners and good friends, and one of your mentors, Dr. Isaacs, is giving a. Big oral presentation, you gotta show up for that and see what it's like. Because it is, it does make you nervous when you get up there in front of, what is the largest room you will ever be in for a medical meeting. So, just so get ready for that is one piece of it.

 

Christian, let me pick on you. Have you thought about packing yet? Carry on. Are you gonna check? I mean, it's what, three, four days, right? So, what are you gonna do?

 

Christian Agbisit, MD: Well, basically just gonna pack like some shirts, and shoes, comfortable shoes for walking.

 

John Marshall, MD: That is such a boy answer, isn't it? Mm-hmm. let's talk, I, you know, I'm a married man. I know about packing that it's different by gender, although some boys are more about their packing than others, but ladies, have you thought about it?

 

Tina Roy, MD: Comfortable shoes.

 

John Marshall, MD: Heels? Let's start there.

 

Nikita Chintapally, MD: I'm doing sneakers.

 

John Marshall, MD: Sneakers.

 

Tina Roy, MD: Definitely practical shoes.

 

John Marshall, MD: Okay.

 

Tina Roy, MD: I also am going for a day extra because I have a lung cancer event to go to beforehand, so I actually have thought about how many outfits, and I think I might need to go shopping this weekend.

 

John Marshall, MD: So, it's remarkable. I will wait to see what is going on this year, which is how dressed up people are. This is just a warning. particularly when we see people from other countries, they tend to, there's a lot of heels when you and to Christian's point you, you know, you, you put a lot of steps on, right? I mean, you, you, one meeting to the next could be a quarter mile, in terms of just distances. So, practical shoes is a good piece of advice. Nikita, do you have a particular, have you already put it out on the bed? Know what you're gonna take?

 

Nikita Chintapally, MD: I'm probably just gonna need to pack maybe like a blazer or some layers, because I know conference centers can get super cold.

 

John Marshall, MD: Cold. It's totally true. It's totally true. And you don't sleep by the way, just so you know. So, you, you party until late and then. You get up early because the next session that you really feel like you should go to is at 7:30 AM. And by the way, you're gonna be taking a bus with a bunch of other nerdy oncologists from downtown Chicago to the convention center sipping coffee. Don't spill it on yourself because you had to be careful with your pack, right? This is just advice, To go out there. it is a contact sport ASCO. So, you're also gonna see for the first time, Nikita, I'll start with you. It's like we've all been to meetings where pharmaceutical companies display stuff, right? So, I don't know if you've been to a big meeting before, but they have these halls where they have their booths and their maps, their actual maps. And so, any idea about what that's gonna be like?

 

Nikita Chintapally, MD: I have absolutely zero clue what that's gonna be like. I'll probably see the, you know, drug names that we use in clinic, and that'll be the extent of my excitement, but maybe I'll be, it'll be different.

 

John Marshall, MD: Have you all had, have you been to one of these meetings where you've seen this kind of huge booth?

 

Tina Roy, MD: I haven't seen huge pharmaceutical booths, but even some small ones can be pretty exciting. I'm expecting a, because I've heard about it, I'm expecting a lot, I think.

 

John Marshall, MD: Well, one thing you'll notice, this is it'll freak you out—and you'll go, Dr. Marshall? The carpet is thicker, so they make fancier carpet to slow you down when you're on the booth. So that's one thing you'll notice. There are two sides, US and not US because there are different rules around regulatory, they hire people who are not real reps to stand on the corners to welcome you.

 

So, there's this big thing, the wildest booth I have ever seen. I'd be interesting if our listeners might chime in. many years ago, and it was a medicine for dry mouth, and they literally had a fountain flowing through a sand desert in the middle of this booth. So, when you all go, we always try to pick our favorite or maybe, worst booth that you, you went to go see. So maybe when we follow up later, you take a, share something with like, you were just like, whoa, that, that was, that was something.

 

Let's do something more important while we're really going. am, and maybe I'm back to Tina. So, what do you wanna learn? What are you expecting to learn?

 

Tina Roy, MD: I'm really excited about the trainee and early career lounge because of meeting other mentors, meeting other fellows. So, I’m hoping to learn a little bit more about the job application process. See different people in different practices. I am also really excited to see what interaction is between pharmaceutical companies, oncologists, what kind of atmosphere there is.

 

So, I think I'm kind of, of course, those big like plenary sessions, oral abstracts. I'm excited about learning the nitty gritty about what's happening, but also just like that atmosphere and interaction between the different groups that are there.

 

John Marshall, MD: That's great answer. Christian?

 

Christian Agbisit, MD: Kind of same thing as Tina. How I can treat my patients, plenaries and which are the, well, the new stuff that comes out in.

 

John Marshall, MD: You know, if it's in the plenary, it's positive. So that's one of the things you can pretty much bank on, going forward. Nikita, what are you hoping to learn from all of this? That you really wanted to be a surgeon? No, no, no. Something different.

 

Nikita Chintapally, MD: Never, yeah, definitely similar to what Tina said about the early career and mentorship, as I'm going into second year, we have more research time, so hopefully trying to see, you know, you know, what could be feasible from my standpoint. Get some ideas and just again, big, big picture. Get really inspired, hopefully.

 

John Marshall, MD: I think you'll be surprised. By the number of people that you actually recognize. You'll, you'll cross paths, maybe, you know, through your training at other institutions or just you'll see people you recognize. And of course, it is when you're as old as I am. You recognize lots of people. I think. So that's one thing that is fun too, is that you connect to people that you don't see often or regularly.

 

It is time to connect, the internationalness of it is quite striking. So, you'll see people from all over the world. are certain countries that do not allow, or we don't let them in. To be blunt. And so, they will go to ESMO or other meetings so that you will notice the absence of certain people, maybe, you know, over time because their countries don't allow, or we don't allow their immigration in.

 

But very much of an international feel to it. It's both exhilarating, I think. But it's exhausting too because you are learning. There's a lot of new stuff you're drinking in. There is a lot of business that's transacted during the meeting, and a lot of new data that's unloaded on us.

 

And so, what we then try to do is take this information as say just a GI specialist and try to integrate it into how does it affect treatment on the Wednesday, when we get back on June 4th. So, from there. So, any last thoughts? Christian, you got a plane ticket,

 

Christian Agbisit, MD: Yeah.

 

John Marshall, MD: okay, you got a hotel? Okay, then those are the two most important things, Nikita, any thoughts?

 

Nikita Chintapally, MD: What are you most looking forward to, Dr. Marshall?

 

John Marshall, MD: Well, so my problem is, is that I'm overbooked and so, I, I, you know, which meeting will I actually go to, and will I actually go and see any data being presented? So, I'm at a place where I almost never go into the posters or to the presentations because I got too much other stupid stuff going on in my world.

 

It’s an enjoyable event because so much, it is our community. It is a celebration of our community. It's, it's an excitement. You all talked about being inspired and, you know, reaffirming what you do so you leave, you leave charged and ready to, to move on to cure cancer.

 

Thank you, guys, very, very much. I know you gotta keep running. We'll get back together in a couple of weeks and see what you learned when you went to the 2025 ASCO.

 

John Marshall for Oncology Unscripted. Talk to you all soon.