The purpose of this study was to describe the career paths of young French medical oncologists and radiation oncologists after post-residency fellowship and to quantify professional insertion difficulty, its associated factors and reported impact. This was a national cross-sectional declarative survey.

A self-administered online questionnaire was distributed from 22nd May to 9th June 2026, through professional networks, to oncologists who had completed their residency and/or post-residency fellowship between November 2021 and November 2025. Insertion difficulty was defined a priori by a composite criterion (at least one of: job search of one year or more, constrained locum work, constrained part-time work, constrained change of region, or no oncologist position). The inserted cohort comprised respondents who had completed their post-residency fellowship. Comparisons used Fisher exact, chi-squared and Mann-Whitney tests, with logistic regression for trends.

Among 142 respondents (97radiation oncologists, 45 medical oncologists; 76 women; median age 32.5 years), 98 (69 %) were inserted. Twenty-seven (27.6 %) met the composite criterion, reaching 34.7 % in sensitivity analysis. Difficulty was markedly higher in radiation oncologists than medical oncologists (36.8 versus 6.7 %; odds ratio 8.14, 95 % confidence interval: 1.79–37.10; p = 0.0026) and inversely associated with parenthood (odds ratio: 0.37; p = 0.042). It was accompanied by lower income and overall satisfaction ( p = 0.0045 and p = 0.0001) and a threefold more frequent five-year intention to change position ( p = 0.0003).

More than one quarter of young French oncologists reported an objectifiable insertion difficulty after post-residency fellowship, predominantly in radiation oncology, warranting prospective monitoring of training-to-job adequacy.