Anaisabel P D's Senior Project Blog
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Project Title: A heart to heart with chemo: enhancing the prevention of heart complications related to chemotherapy BASIS Advisor: Debby Hermann Internship Location: Anderson Cancer Center (Virtual) Onsite Mentor: Dr. Rojas |
Project Abstract
Cardiovascular diseases and cancer are two of the leading causes of death worldwide. While it is crucial for cancer patients to undergo chemotherapy to eradicate cancer cells, an often neglected aspect of treatment is the importance of safeguarding patients' long-term cardiovascular health. My research will focus on enhancing the prevention, detection, and treatment of heart complications related to chemotherapy in cancer patients. I will do this while partaking in a virtual internship with Dr.Rojas where I aim to make progress on this research by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of research papers that are relevant to the subject. Conducting this research will allow me to gain a holistic view of the subject and identify areas in which more research can be conducted. I will also gain the opportunity to collaborate with medical professionals and gain familiarity with evaluating scientific literature. In the future, I will continue my research in person and confirm the conclusions that I reach with my systematic review. I also want to further my research by ensuring those in underserved communities have access to preventive care and helping educate patients and their families about cardiovascular risks associated with cancer treatments and how to manage them.
Week 10: Reflections
Hello everyone and welcome to my final blog post! Over the past few days, I managed to complete my informational pamphlet and summarize the highlights of my project. I've also made more progress on my research paper, particularly in outlining the methodology for my upcoming meta-analysis. For the statistical analysis, I plan to utilize R... Read More
Week 9: ROC Graphs
Hello everyone and welcome back for week 9 of my blog! During this past week I managed to finish most of my slides for my final presentation. I'm going to be adding more to my slides detailing my results and analysis based off my progress this week and I need to condense what I have... Read More
Week 8: Inflammation and Biomarkers
Hello everyone and welcome back for week 8 of my senior project! Over the last few days, I managed to gain access to studies on Embase, and I reapplied the same method of sorting through sources. Something that was surprising to me during this process was that a multitude of these studies have seen patients... Read More
Week 7: The Cardiac Cycle and PubMed
Hello everyone and welcome to week 7 of my project! This week mirrored last week as I spent time reviewing the abstracts of sources, but this time from the database PubMed. I repeated the process of documenting the details of the sources I excluded and compiling the links and summaries for those I will include... Read More
Week 6: Speckle Tracking Imaging
Hello everyone and welcome to week 6 of my project! This week I was able to review the abstracts of sources on Google that relate to my project and ensure they fit the criteria that were previously established. Throughout this process, I documented the details of the sources I excluded and compiled links and summaries... Read More
Week 5: Strain Imaging and Myocardial Deformation
Hello everyone and welcome to my week 5 blog! Following my research from last week and discussion with my advisor, I have decided to concentrate on immune checkpoint inhibitors. My advisor also approved the idea I previously proposed of focusing on echocardiography and its efficiency in detecting biomarkers for heart complications. For my metanalysis, I... Read More
Week 4: Narrowing Concentration
Hello everyone! Thank you for coming to read about my progress for week 4! This week I spent time reflecting on whether I'm going to follow what was highlighted by the resource I mentioned in my week 3 post and concentrate on Immune checkpoint inhibitors and creating a uniform procedure for diagnosing cardiac complications. Before... Read More
Week 3: Research deficiencies
Hello and welcome back for week 3! Last week I mentioned how I want my research to focus on doxorubicin and daunorubicin. I came across numerous sources that explained how these agents disrupt DNA replication and cell division, as well as how this disruption can lead to cardiomyopathy (the weakening of the heart muscle). Even... Read More
Week 2: A Deep Dive Into Medical Operations
Hello everyone and thank you for coming to read what I've been up to during week 2! This week I began the process of finding research papers related to my project and reading more about the different types of heart complications that may arise because of chemotherapy. As I began viewing more research papers I... Read More
Week 1: Principles of Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Hello and welcome to my blog! My name is Anaisabel, and I'm a senior at Basis San Antonio Shavano Campus. Through the course of these 10 weeks, my research will focus on improving the prevention of chemotherapy-induced heart complications in cancer patients. I will do this by working with Dr.Rojas to conduct a systematic review... Read More