Weekly Report (11/21-12/4)

These past couple of weeks in Independent Study and Mentorship have been exciting ones. I was able to attend clinic the Tuesday of Thanksgiving break, and it was quite an interesting day. One of the patients I saw had a 50 centimeter tumor, a peritoneal liposarcoma to be specific, that weighed nearly four pounds. The tumor had been removed prior to the patients visit with Dr. Mansour, however he was still in the slow recovery phase of postoperative care. He had been experiencing some tenderness and discomfort from his surgery, however Dr. Mansour assured him that this was relatively normal when removing tumors of this magnitude. I also saw a patient with pancreatic cancer, which had been surgically removed 7 years prior, however it had returned, and this time in her liver. This was a new experience for me, as I had never really experienced anything quite like being in that room. The patient however, had quite a bit of spunk and was fairly determined to beat the cancer again, and at any cost. The patient was to undergo an intensive, six week regimen of neoadjuvant chemotherapy prior to her upcoming surgery. We saw many other patients, including a rather interesting case in which I utilized a nomogram.