Yesterday in class we did this activity during which we talked to other people about our projects and gave them advice on how to improve theirs. It would have been fairly effective except that almost everyone gave me the same advice and the advice they gave me was something that I was already planning on doing. Every person I talked to told me to get in touch with some doctors to discuss my research and hopefully get some information from them, though this is something that I am in the process of doing. One person did give me some good advice, actually. She told me to look at different stages of the cancer and ages of patients to compare how effective the treatments were in getting the patient to be able to go into remission. But it did help to say it out loud repeatedly so that I feel more comfortable with the topic itself and how I'm going to go about this project.
For the third research topic, I looked for a way to combine my first two topics. I decided to research viruses that can increase one's risk for cancer and ended up reading a lot about the Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) which can cause Burkitt's Lymphoma and is also the main cause of infectious mononucleosis. Epstein-Barr Virus is a member of the herpesvirus family (it's human herpesvirus 4) and can is often spread through saliva, though it can be spread through sexual contact or other bodily fluids. Burkitt's lymphoma is a rapid growing non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and is more commonly seen in men than women. Burkitt's lymphoma was first discovered in Africa, where many cases remain today, though it has occurred in other areas including the US and is named for Denis Parsons Burkitt, a surgeon who first described the cancer commonly seen in children while working in Africa.
My second potential research topic is epidemiology and immunology. These tend to go hand in hand because when epidemics break out, there tends to be a lot of focus and immune systems and protection against these diseases. With the recent outbreak of ebola in Western Africa and flu season around the corner, I figured that a focus on immunology and epidemiology would be an interesting focal point for my project. Epidemiology is a branch of medicine that focuses on the outbreaks, distribution, and, often times, control of infectious diseases and immunology is a branch of medicine that focuses on the immune system of all organisms. If I were to do this project, I could look at the history of epidemics and pandemics but then also take a look at the science behind these outbreaks and the vaccines being produced to bump up immunity.
The first topic I've been looking into is oncology. If I choose to do my project on this, I think I would try to focus on medical oncology (and then specify further, maybe hematological oncology) I'm not sure exactly what I would do for this project but it is something that is really interesting to me. I'm hoping that, if I do go this route, I'll be able to get in touch with one of the oncologists in town and that he will help me further research this topic. Some blood cancers include leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma, and if I do my project on this, I would probably choose to focus on one of these. Leukemia is the most common cancer, and the leading cause of cancer related death, in children and teens. The reason this topic is of interest to me is because I plan on going into medical oncology when I'm older and when I shadowed in the oncology department this summer, some of the most interesting cases were cancers of the blood. Welcome!
My name is Hannah Conway and I am a senior at Rutland High School and this my STEM Capstone blog. I decided to take this semester long class because I thought that it would be a great opportunity to conduct my own research and focus on a topic that interests me. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to be doing for my project yet, but I plan on taking a look at the medical side of science. |