Week 8: New York, New York

Bittersweet is the perfect oxymoron to describe the end of the immersion term. These past weeks have been nothing short of incredible. I strongly believe I was able to meet my goals of better understanding the process of care of cancer patients, particularly lymphoma patients, and of creating a more clinically translational aspect of my PhD project. However, it still feels like I have so much more to learn.

In my final week, I sought to maximize both my clinical hours and produced data. In the clinic, I was able to go into the OR and see an IORT - intraoperative radiation therapy- procedure on a patient receiving a lumpectomy. Through this procedure, after the tumor is removed following the usual lumpectomy procedure, the radiation probe is inserted to deliver radiation to the previous tumor site in hopes of killing microscopic cancerous remains. This intraoperative delivery mirrors the purpose of external beam radiation, which I have witnessed through my past few weeks in the radiation oncology department. With similar purposes and efficacy, IORT can be preferred by patients to prevent skin damage and for the simple matter of convenience. The daily struggle of a cancer patient to simply receive patient, as is the case for external radiation, is often overlooked for the sake of the final diagnosis. Through IORT, a patient is able to receive the best of both worlds - health and convenience. For further information,  please follow this link to watch a video of the procedure. 

In the lab, I finished producing data regarding the growth capacity and differential drug response for the vitally infected and non-infected DLBCL and BL organoids in the context of various integrin ligands. Although the analysis of the data is ongoing, I'm thrilled to report that the project will be continued as a collaboration. Extracting lymphocytes from tonsils also proves to be the second project that will be continued as a collaboration.

Overall, this past week serves as a microcosm of the entire immersion term. It has been a whirlwind of clinical perspective and immediately translating what I learned into the lab. Set against the backdrop of the city that never sleeps, the immersion program was the fast-paced, jumpstart I needed to further motivate me to move forward in my research and to help me understand that my long-term goal of translating my research to the clinic can come sooner than later.