Week 1 - Justin Paek

For my clinical immersion term, I was matched with Dr. Ariel Marciscano in the department of Radiation Oncology. Aside from his clinical responsibilities, Dr. Marciscano heads a research group at Weill Cornell Medicine and serves as Director of the Radiation Therapy Preclinical Core. His group is interested in elucidating the mechanisms by which radiation therapy engages the immune system when treating solid tumors, and how clinicians can take advantage of a deeper understanding of this process to design more effective cancer treatment paradigms for patients. During part of my time here, I will be helping with a project in Dr. Marciscano's lab that aims to investigate the effect of radiation therapy on Fc gamma receptor expression by various immune cells. Differences in expression and engagement of Fc receptors have implications on the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies and combination therapies. 

While Dr. Marciscano does not currently treat many patients in the clinic, he has connected me with various clinicians within the department with different areas of expertise for me to shadow when I'm not in the lab. This week, I was able to shadow Dr. Sanfilippo (head & neck, lung cancers), Dr. Golden (anal, gastric cancers), and Dr. Ng (breast and pancreatic cancers). Throughout the week, I followed the physicians through many different stages of radiation treatment--from image-based planning and designing of the radiation treatment strategy, to delivery of the radiotherapy, and finally to post-treatment status checks with patients. Shadowing and interacting with clinicians has been a truly rewarding experience so far. Not only is it fascinating to see such cutting-edge technologies being used first-hand, it is also great to see clinicians having meaningful interactions with their patients. Whether it is easing a patient's anxieties about a particular procedure or congratulating a patient on a successfully completed radiotherapy session, it is gratifying to observe the sincere care that the doctors and nurses have for all of their patients. Indeed, the clinicians have also been very generous with their time with me, explaining the many different processes involved in their day-to-day and answering any questions I have. Dr. Marciscano in particular has spent a significant amount of time this week giving me teaching sessions about the fundamentals of radiobiology and oncology treatment paradigms. 

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