Week 5: Revelations

Hey guys! This week would have ordinarily been spring break, but I took my one week break on the first week, so I was to show up at the clinic as always. Funny thing, I completely overlooked this until the morning of.

jkjk this internship is awesome and I love it ^-^

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This week, I have been analyzing my spreadsheet using Excel analytics to see any trends I can find between Clinical and CORE Lab data. As a quick recap, the commonly used and heavily physician based ‘Clinical Trial’ process uses the observations of field experts in lesion size measurements and data collection. The experimental and heavily computer software based ‘CORE Lab’ process uses automated measurements and reports to record lesion data. I am trying to determine which is more effective as a standalone method for physician use.

Here are some of the basic stats and conclusions I came up with. Again, I can't post the actual spreadsheets I made to crunch these numbers in the interest of patient privacy. Do you like the font? I think it looks very analytical.

How many lesions had core lab measurements (for at least one dimension): 115/272

How many lesions had clinical measurements (for at least one dimension): 76/272

How many lesions had both measurements (for at least one dimension): 64/272

Core Lab to Clinical Ratio: 1.51:1

Including “Present” - Clinical: 87/272 - Core Lab: 265/272 - Ratio: 3.05:1 ("Present" refers to lesions marked as existent but too small to bother taking measurements for, and only just big enough to take note of location.) 

y = 0.6948x + 0.5064
R^2 (coefficient of determination) = 0.616 

y = 0.7137x + 0.4033
R^2 = 0.664

Long axis and short axis refer to the dimensions of different lesions, in centimeters. These graphs use a linear structure, though I also have logarithmic, exponential, power, etc.

Quick conclusions:
-Doctor mostly independent of how much quantitative information provided. On the other hand, reports may change style according to referring physician.

-Only one CHESON report.

-The Core Lab had a lot more “Present” lesions w/o numbers attached than the Clinical Trials, even accounting for the data amount disparity between them.

-The Clinical Reports had a lot more human analysis and comments in general than the Core Lab Reports, as seen by my “Clinical Comment” addition to the columns in my spreadsheet.

-Main types of cancers? Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Breast Cancer (often metastatic).

-Bi-Dimensional Reports often had similar and predictable lesion descriptions, such as Rt. Hilar, Lt. Axillary, etc. On the other hand, RECIST and CHESON reports had varying names and descriptions for every single lesion, as well as specific designations such as NT01 or T02.

-Only two lesions (from the same set of Core Lab data) ever had Diameter Product listed, counting both Core Lab and Clinical reports.

-Excepting a few outliers, the Clinical numbers tend to match up rather nicely with the Core Lab numbers, indicating an expected level of accuracy.

-Bi-Dimensional Reports have a lot more quantitative data recorded in general compared to RECIST and CHESON reports.

I am currently working on an in-depth analysis promising more numbers and more refined conclusions. 

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Operation Overlord (Tempest)

At one point some new monitors came into the lab, and I was tasked with setting them up, as well as dismantling some old computers completely to make room for them. The first one took quite a while, but once I got the hang of it, I was able to finish setting up most of them pretty quickly. That is, until I reached the second - to - last computer. It had the name, I kid you not, "Overlord Tempest" and a some fantasy knight with a red cape emblazoned on the box.

It does look pretty cool, gotta admit.

Name aside, this thing was HARD to set up. Not only was the monitor heavy enough to crush a blue whale, but it seemed like there were enough wires to trip every person on the planet at least once. Needless to say, I wasn't making very much progress.

When my supervisor Christine walked in, I asked her if she could offer me any assistance. She smiled and said, quote, "The difference between a challenge and torture is knowing when it'll end." Gee, thanks. It also should be noted that I had no clue when I would finish setting this thing up haha

Eventually, after graciously accepting the help of "George" (whom you may remember from the Quest for Edward) I was able to get everything the Overlord threw at me functional. 

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The Case of the Missing Lecturer

I attended a lecture last Tuesday. The lecturer never showed up. I thought that was pretty big news. Others in the room told me it was a commonplace occurrence. Huh.

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And finally this week, I was told that I would get an opportunity to speak at next week's meeting for 5 minutes on anything related to my project. Normally, I'm just allowed to listen in, so this is big. :)

Thanks for reading! Hopefully I can get next week's update out in a more timely fashion.

Wonka please, I have follower base nearing double digits. You're just jealous.