Weekly Report (12/4-1/2)

These past couple of weeks have been incredibly enlightening, but they have also been incredibly busy. The first week of Christmas Break I spent quite a bit of time at U.T. Southwestern shadowing Dr. Mansour. On Tuesday, I spent nearly the whole day down at clinic, and was able to see quite a few patients. I saw quite a few follow-up patients, as well as a couple of new patients and some incredibly interesting cases. One of the cases presented what appeared to be a large hemangioma, however there were conflicting scans. Dr. Mansour presented this case at the Gastrointestinal Disease Oriented Team (GI-DOT) tumor board. Wednesday was the first opportunity I had to sit in on a tumor board, and it was incredibly fascinating. There were quite a few cases that various radiation oncologists, medical oncologists, and surgical oncologists presented. It was the first time I had truly seen the "team" aspect of cancer treatment. There was even a pediatric oncologist from Children's Hospital who presented a case of a patient who had a peritoneal adenocarcinoma, which does not typically present in patients this young. The rest of the week I spent working on my original work project. Overall, I was incredibly pleased with the way it turned out, and the long hours and lots of work was worth the final project.