Overview of Clinical Oncology

An overview of Clinical Oncology ST3.

A single interview centre will be held online to support selection for all posts.

Working alongside The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) we manage a centralised process aimed at delivering a fair and consistent process for all applicants.

For more information about Clinical Oncology training please refer to the RCR website.

For careers advice please visit the Health Careers Website.

General information regarding recruitment to all specialty training posts and detailed information including person specifications, competition ratios and the national medical specialty recruitment applicant handbook are available on the Medical Specialty Recruitment pages.

These pages aim to provide you with information regarding the 2026 Clinical Oncology ST3 recruitment process.

Summary of change for recruitment process 2026

There are national changes to the recruitment process in relation to GMC eligibility and maximum application limits and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) interviews.

Please review the Clinical Oncology person specification regarding registration and right to work for details of GMC eligibility at point of application.

Self-assessments/Evidence portfolio uploads the system used to do this is Qpercom (the same system to interview) and detailed information will be provided at the point of invitation to upload evidence.

Alternative Certificate: Applicants using the Alternative Certificate route should note that the 2026 version of Group 2 ‘Alternative Certificate to enter Higher Physician Specialty Training’ has been published.

Please refer to the Physician Higher Specialty Training Recruitment website for further details.

For 2026 recruitment cycle, this will be the only accepted version of the Alternative Certificate.

Summary for 2026 recruitment

Details of the recruitment process are provided throughout this page in conjunction with central guidance issued by the national Medical and Dental Recruitment and Selection (MDRS) team that applies across specialties. You can find the central guidance on the Medical Specialty Recruitment pages.

You must read this page and the guidance on the Medical Specialty Recruitment pages before beginning your application.

Clinical Oncology recruitment for assessing applications in 2026 is as follows: 

1. As part of the Oriel application form you will be asked to provide a self-assessment score depending on your personal achievements
2. The evidence you upload will be reviewed by consultants. They will verify that you have claimed the correct number of points and can change your score if they feel your evidence merits a different score from your self-assessment
3. After the evidence verification process, we aim to offer all applicants an interview. However, if capacity is exceeded, only the highest scoring applicants will be invited to interview
4. The interview will be conducted across multiple stations
5. A combination of your verified evidence scores, and scores at interview will be used to determine your final total score and ranking