Immersion Week 6: Seminars on seminars

Summary: This week, I focused on attending as many seminars as possible and spent more time in the OR.

During immersion, I’ve really found that I missed the science communication that I get on a regular basis back in Ithaca. Here it seems almost all conversations tend to be patient driven, which makes sense, but I sometimes feel left out. To remedy this I went to several seminars. The first seminar I went to was on the importance of normalizing PET scanning. The reason being, there is no consensus that that PET scans are relevant in patient outcomes as there is no standard SUV. It seems obvious, but something as simple as breathing can drastically change the size and shape of a tumor and lead to false positives and negatives. To combat this, 4D-CT was developed to counteract the impact of breathing. Next was a meeting on MRI that was hosted by Dr. Wang. The talk was interested and mainly focused on a groups attempt to create a PLG microparticle to more locally deliver sorafenib. Sorafenib, is highly toxic and when given orally can cause systemic issues like ulcers. Lastly, I went to a pathology conference that focused on an autopsy that was performed earlier that week. The resident who presented the case showed gross examples of the organ and also HE slides and asked specific questions about what may be present in the slides.

In the OR, I was able to watch a tumor resection with a double mastectomy and silicone reconstruction. It was interesting seeing the entire breast tissue being removed from the patient as one piece. Another interesting aspect of the procedure was the upper most rib of the patient was really pronounced and caused some difficultly for the oncologist trying to remove all the breast tissue. The other notable procedure I observed this week was a breast reduction for a patient with diabetes. The patient had very distinguished fat pockets that were different from any other procedure I’ve seen before. This made difficult for the reconstruction part and it took the surgeon several hours to get the breast to have a traditional shape.

On a side note, the IRB has still not cleared and I am still in research limbo. Dr. Min and Dr. Wang are both working diligently to solve this issue. I spent Sunday on a Jazzy brunch cruise and was able to see the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of liberty up close and personal. I would recommend this to any future immersion students.