A Spotlight On Cancer: Characterizing The Steatohepatitic Variant of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Welcome back to my blog! Thank you for continuing to read my posts from week to week. Now we have reached the final week of my senior research project. Time flies! My work at the clinic is coming to an end. As I get ready to leave my cozy little office in the radiology lab, I can't help but reflect on my time at Mayo Clinic. It was a challenging, and at times tedious experience, but it was always fun, and that is what I like most about my project. I had the opportunity to do something that I enjoyed doing, to pursue my interests. Additionally, the food in the staff cafeteria was excellent, so that was a huge bonus. I have also learned some valuable lessons over the past ten weeks. I hope that those of you who plan to undertake a senior research project in the future can learn from my experiences. Research can be tedious. At times, progress is painfully slow, but oftentimes this is when your work is most significant and meaningful. You just need to be patient. Research is hi...

Welcome back to my blog! For the last week, I've mainly been focused on revising the work I've accomplished so far with lesion identification. After reviewing the regions of interest I isolated with the ImageJ software, I discovered a few errors, requiring me to re-analyze several scans. In total, of the twenty six patients in my original MRI sample group, I was able to successfully gather data from fewer than twenty of them, as the others were corrupted. Unfortunately, I do not think that I will be able to receive the results from the ASU Machine Learning Laboratory before the termination of my project, so I will not be able to present those findings. However, even though my work is only a small part of a much greater effort, but it is significant by itself as well. Furthermore, this experience has taught me many valuable skills and given me a deeper understanding of Radiology. As my research project comes to a conclusion, I will begin directing my efforts on my powerpoint...

Welcome back to my blog! I have decided to change the title of my blog to  A Spotlight On Cancer: Characterizing The Steatohepatitic Variant of Hepatocellular Carcinoma.  This new title is a lot more specific and accurate than my old title. Over the course of my internship, the focus of my project has deviated slightly from it's original intentions, and the change in title was long overdue. As for my project, I'm almost done identifying the lesions for all 26 patients in my sample. Now i just need to wait for my mentor, Dr. Silva, to approve my work for the next phase of the project - bioinformatics. What is bioinformatics? Basically, it is the science of interpreting complex biological data. All the work I did with identifying lesions on the patient MRI scans was only the data collection part of the project. The Image J software converts them into pixel data, which will be analyzed by a machine learning laboratory in ASU. Hopefully, this will be completed before the end o...

Progress on my project has continued to be "slow and steady." The process of identifying lesions has been more arduous and time consuming than I had imagined, especially since many of the MRI scans have corrupted data and other inconsistencies. However, I'm quite content with the current pace of progress. In the story of "The Tortoise and the Hare," Greek fabulist Aesop wrote "slow and steady wins the race." That is precisely how I feel right now. In addition to my main project, I've been working on a side-project. It's not really a project, more of an exercise. My mentor wanted to give me more experience in the more traditional, medical side of things, so he tasked me with writing a medical case report with the help of Dr. Nguyen. A medical case report is basically a report detailing the symptoms, signs, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of an individual patient. Usually, these publication describe an unusual or novel occurrence. As of ...

I got back to work this week. My mentors were still away for Spring Break, so I mostly worked alone. Continuing the work of week 4, I spent my time reviewing patient MRI scans. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, my task for each MRI scan is to search for legions indicative of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC). I then mark these lesions as a region of interest and compare it to a separate region of interest located in normal liver tissue, which acts as a control.  I got the first few patients done pretty quickly. It was very easy to identify tumors. But I soon discovered that these patients were the exception, not the standard. For most of the patient scans, the visual difference between lesions and surrounding, healthy tissue was very subtle. Gradually, I trained my eyes to notice these slight differences in color and shading, but the entire process was based on trial and failure nevertheless. Additionally, some of the scans were extremely low-quality and pixelated, making les...

I decided to use this week as my Spring Break, which is convenient because my mentor also decided to take the week off! I've been spending most of my time watching TV and playing with my dog. I'm excited to get back to work next week. Stay posted!

Welcome back to my blog! I've been very busy this past week, mainly sorting through MRI scans. I finally got the hang of the ImageJ software, and my mentor returned on Tuesday to walk me through the process. My task for each MRI scan is to scroll through the many cross-sectional images in search for legions, which may indicate the presence of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC). I then mark these lesions as a region of interest and compare it to a separate region of interest  located in normal liver tissue, which acts as a control. For each patient, I examine multiple MRI scans: Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC), Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI), Axial In-phase, Axial Out-phase, Axial Pre/Post-phase LAVA, and Axial T2. Each one reveals a different perspective, emphasizing certain features over others. Liver lesions can be difficult to locate. They usually appear as a mis-colored blob that appears and fades away as you scroll through the images, but the distinction can vary ...

Welcome back  to my blog! This time, I will begin by talking about the next phase of my project: image analysis. After obtaining patient MRI scans through the Notion software last week, my goal this week was to begin examining them and identifying regions of interest. It took a while to familiarize myself with ImageJ, and I encountered many problems along the way, but eventually I learned to use it. The scans are taken from the transverse plane, and scrolling through them reveals additional cross-sections in the z-axis, thus providing a 3-Dimensional understanding. Legions in the liver are sometimes difficult to locate, but they appear as a discolored and misshapen mass that appears and then disappears as you scroll through. Each patient contained also several different types of MRI Scans, with names like Apparent Diffusion Coefficient mm2 s Apparent Diffusion Coefficient mm2 s AX DualEcho FSPGR_op phase, AX DualEcho FSPGR_op phase, AX DualEcho FSPGR_in phase, AX DualEcho FSPGR_i...

Welcome back to my blog! The second week of my internship at Mayo Clinic has been very eventful. I have settled into the bioinformatics lab and met many wonderful people. I finally received my mayo clinic staff badge as well, and discovered the staff cafe, which serves really good food. I have been mainly working with Sikh, a student at ASU. He is really nice and has been an invaluable resource for me. Using a software called Notion, we gathered a dataset of patients from the Mayo Clinic database, anonymized them, and fetched their MRI scans. Each scan captures numerous cross-sections of the torso from the transverse plane, and when combined, they form a 3-D representation. In the interest of preserving patient identity, I cannot reveal the actual MRI scans I will be working with until much later in the process, but they look something like this. However, we also faced many unexpected challenges in the process of preparing the data. Some of the studies had corrupted or non-exist...

Welcome back to my blog! I have just completed the first week of my internship at Mayo Clinic. The past few days have been very busy, and I have already learned a lot. I want to share some of my experiences thus far and talk more about my project. The building itself has a great aesthetic appeal, with its wide construction, spacious corridors, and rich sandstone facade, which effortlessly blends into the surrounding mountains and gently fades into the sunset. A peaceful nature trail surrounds the place, decorated with native desert flora. Upon my entrance, I was cordially greeted by volunteers in the lobby, whose job was to welcome visitors and comfort patients. I immediately sensed a positive atmosphere. The interior is a colossal maze of hallways connecting a seemingly countless number of rooms. I almost lost my way trying to traverse to the office of Dr. Zwart, the Radiologist who manages the SRP internship program at Mayo Clinic. After receiving a general orientation in the ...

Hello! My name is Richard Bao. Throughout the following months, I will be working on my Senior Research Project at Mayo Clinic. The focus of my project is the imaging of cancerous tumors in the abdominal and chest areas. Utilizing several biomarkers, I will analyze and quantify visible and sub-visible image features. The goal of my research is to establish correlations that will allow me to assess the diagnostic and prognostic abilities of these various biomarkers. Ultimately, through this project, I hope to reveal valuable insight into tumor growth and progression, as well as use my findings to make treatment recommendations. Throughout high school, I developed a deep fascination for science. I loved my science classes because they gave me the opportunity to apply my knowledge. The many lab experiments excited me. They provided a sense of discovery, the feeling of unraveling a mystery, exploring a new idea. There is an immense beauty and elegance in the way science can be used to de...