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The NBE curriculum list, reproduced exactly, plus the editions residents actually read in 2026 — with journals, a year-wise reading plan, and the references you will need for your thesis and exit practical.
Doing the MCh instead? The same superspecialty is covered at MCh Surgical Oncology books.
These 96 titles are reproduced as they appear in the National Board of Examinations curriculum document for Surgical Oncology — spelling and abbreviations included. Treat it as the scope anchor, not as a shopping list.
Source: National Board of Examinations curriculum document for Surgical Oncology
The books most residents actually buy. These are the editions in circulation now, with a note on whether each is something you read through, keep as a reference, or open only for the viva.
Journal club and the recent-advances parts of the theory paper come from here. You do not need all of them — follow one Indian and two international titles properly.
Three years of superspecialty training goes faster than it sounds, and most of it is spent on the floor. The order below is what works for most DrNB Surgical Oncology residents.
Read DeVita by disease site alongside the tumour board, learn AJCC staging thoroughly, and use Jatin Shah during head and neck rotations. Register the thesis.
Add Bland for breast, Berek and Hacker for gynae-oncology and Shackelford/Maingot alongside the operating list; follow NCCN guidelines for each site.
Cover sarcoma with Enzinger and Weiss, revise DeVita selectively, drill imaging, pathology and specimen spots, rehearse operative descriptions, and practise timed short notes.
Protocol, methodology and reporting standards examiners expect you to have followed.
Cases, spotters and stations that come up again and again in the exit exam.
DrNB Surgical Oncology theory is three papers of 100 marks and three hours each in short-notes format, with 150/300 to pass, followed by a 300-mark practical of clinical cases and/or OSCE with viva. The practical emphasises staging, multidisciplinary treatment sequencing and operative technique. Specimen, pathology and PET-CT interpretation stations are routine alongside the clinical cases.
The National Board of Examinations curriculum for Surgical Oncology lists 96 titles, beginning with Molecular Diagnosis of Cancer, Cotter.F.E. The full list is reproduced on this page exactly as it is published.
DeVita, Hellman and Rosenberg's Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology by DeVita, Lawrence, Rosenberg is the usual anchor. The reference standard for disease-site oncology across all oncology superspecialties.
DrNB Surgical Oncology is a superspecialty course taken after a broad-specialty MD, MS or DNB, so the reading is narrower and deeper. The broad-specialty texts are assumed knowledge by the time you start.
No. Most residents own two or three and use the department or library copy for the rest. That is exactly why printing selected chapters from a PDF works out cheaper than buying volumes you will open twice.
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