Fourth Week: Oncology

For my fourth week of clinical rotations, I was back at Hospital del Niño in the oncology unit with Dra. Riveros. Oncology is a medical topic that I’m not that familiar with although I have learned a little bit about the development of cancer from my biochemistry, cell biology, and genetic courses at school.

In this rotation, the most common cancers that I encountered were acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), retinoblastoma, sarcoma, and accompanying several of the cases was leucopenia (a reduction in the amount of leucocytes). Dra. Riveros told me that ALL is the most common pediatric cancer. ALL occurs when there is a lot of lymphoblast (immature lymphocytes) in the blood. Furthermore, retinoblastoma is a cancer that affects the patient’s retina. In patients that had retinoblastoma, I saw the characteristic whitening of the pupil. Finally, another common cancer that I saw was sarcoma. Sarcomas are malignant tumors that affect a variety of tissues (ex. bone, muscle, fibrous tissue, etc). Dra. Riveros said that sarcomas are named after the parent tissue in which they originate. For example, if the sarcoma were found in the bones then the sarcoma would be called osteosarcoma. One case that I saw involved a young girl, who I’ll call Patient M. I was able to view Patient M’s radiographs and tomographs. In these, one could clearly see that the sarcoma had engulfed her abdominal region, esp. her liver. But now the tumor had been reduced in size thanks to chemotherapy. However, the doctors weren’t able to specify the type of sarcoma because they were not able to identify the starting tissue in which the tumor began.

In addition, to completing rounds with Dra. Riveros, she also took the other two CFHI interns and me down to the pathology lab. In the pathology lab, we looked at slides that contained samples, and the pathologist went over how to identify cancer cells in the tissue samples. I found this to be pretty cool because I’ve never done anything like it before.

Furthermore, because there was quite a bit of downtime in the oncology unit, I really got to know the kids beyond their medical conditions. Often, I found myself just talking and playing with the kids. I must say that the kids in this unit are super sweet and cute. I had a great time playing with them. On a couple of the days, I brought the kids crayons, necklaces, bracelets, and a couple small toys and handed them out to the kids on the unit. When I gave each of them a gift, they were appreciative. It was nice to see them smile and escape the reality of their lives for at least an hour and just to have fun with me.
Overall, I enjoyed this rotation.