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

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 ...