Week 4- Maggie Elpers

This week, I spent the mornings rounding with Dr. Kaner on leukemia service. They see a wide range of patients admitted for some of the more common leukemias such as acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL), as well as more rare types or subtypes of leukemia including hairy cell leukemia and acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). Most patients are either admitted for induction chemotherapy (the first chemo given when a patient presents with leukemia) or consolidation chemotherapy (given after there are no signs of leukemia in the patient). Some patients with higher risk leukemia will be evaluated for allogeneic stem cell transplant or the team will look for clinical trials they could be eligible to enroll in. In most cases, after patients finish chemotherapy, they are able to leave the hospital after their white blood cell count reaches a certain threshold and they are less at risk of developing an infection. Back in Ithaca, I do some work with a leukemia cell line, so it was interesting to see some clinical treatments relevant to my work. 

I also spent time in clinic with Dr. Hsu this week in the afternoons. She mostly sees patients who have had stem cell transplants and come in weekly or biweekly to be monitored for any post-transplant complications. These complications usually include graft vs host disease and side effects from all the medications these patients are on. I was also able to attend a consultation with Dr. Hsu for a patient with CNS lymphoma who is being considered for an autologous stem cell transplant. This patient will have to undergo a series of clinical evaluations to determine if the patient is “fit” enough to have a transplant due to the intense chemo prior to transplant. 


My clinical research project is moving along now that I have access to EPIC. We are gathering all the data we want from patients' charts and will send this off to a statistician for analysis. I also meet with the clinical team’s PharmD. to help me understand the dosing of medications/chemo/etc. in patient’s charts.


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