Journal

AUGUST 18, 2021

The last time I stepped foot in school was in 9th grade, and now, when I return to school, I will be a junior. It feels crazy cause I don’t feel like a junior just yesterday when I stepped into my freshman year. I’m excited to be back in school in person because I hope to reconnect with my friends and teachers. My favorite memories in school will always be the ones with my friends during lunch, after-school periods, and sports. I do a sport every season in school because I love it and it motivates me to go to school. During school, I always look forward to going to practice at the end of the day. Ever since covid my routines have been all messed up so I’m also excited to go back to school and into routine again. I feel like the first couple of days of school is gonna be a bit nerve-wracking because of all the changes due to covid but I’m looking forward to it.

The part I’m not so enthusiastic about is the academic part of junior year. Everyone says that junior year is the most challenging year of high school, and I’m very nervous about my grades. I’ve always been satisfied with all the grades I’ve gotten so far, but I still don’t love the concept of grades because I always get so nervous and stressed even though the grade I end up receiving is fine. The thing I’m going to dread in school are tests; since I was online my whole sophomore year, my teachers weren’t that big on tests, so I’m very nervous about tests when I have to go back to school.

I think what attracted me to join E=mc2 was that I was able to research anything I wanted to. In school, we always have to study what the teacher tells us to do, but in this class, I could examine whatever I want. Another reason I wanted to take this class was because I wanted to explore more topics to find out my interests. My favorite part of this class is the freedom to explore and research whatever interests me. I honestly feel like everybody should take this class because I think the ability to explore and learn whatever you want is something all students should have a chance to do. I’m really looking forward to our next assignments and projects in this class, I can’t wait to learn more about my topic!

AUGUST 25, 2021

The medical field is a vast and growing field where new discoveries are being researched and made every day. Being in the medical field allows you to keep on learning for the rest of your life. This is a field where discoveries will always be made and new things will be found. One of the reasons I’m interested in this field is because I have a fascination with biology and how our human body works. Not only this but I want to be able to make a difference in people’s lives. I feel the medical field is one of the most important fields where everyone should at least get a basic understanding of. Another thing about this career is that it’s not just a 9-5 job where you sit around all day, you actually get to move around and get to communicate with various people such as scientists, researchers, medical staff, and patients. I not only want to make a difference in people’s wellness, but my dream also wants to provide health care to people who can’t afford it.

There are so many specializations and topics included in the medical field. One that I have decided to research will be cancer. Everyone knows cancer is one of the major causes of death worldwide. I want to research and learn more about this disease to help spread awareness to others. I want people to be aware of the symptoms and how they can prevent themselves from getting this disease. I also want to learn more about this topic and why it’s the leading cause of death and why there hasn’t been a cure for this disease. I know that cancer is a disease where the cells of the body grow uncontrollably, but I want to know what causes that to happen. I've decided to change my topic to this because I don’t know too much about this topic, but I’ve always been fascinated with this, and I want to learn more.

Questions:

1. How are cancerous cells different from normal cells?

2. How has the treatment for cancer advanced over history?

3. How does cancer/how do people get cancer?

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

One of my favorite all-time story’s is Harry Potter written by JK Rowling. This story is about a young boy who lives with his not-so-loving Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin. On his 11th birthday finds out that he is a wizard and so were his parents. In this story, he also finds out that his parents didn’t actually die from a car crash, but instead they were murdered by an evil wizard named Voldemort. As the young boy, Harry Potter is startled with all this information and shocked that normal, old him is a wizard, he ventures on to attend a school for Witchcraft and wizardry; this new school he is attending is called Hogwarts. Harry soon finds out that he is not just any wizard, but the most famous wizard of all. As Harry attends his new school he learns more information about his parents and how they were murdered. While being the most popular wizard ever, Harry remains modest, kind, and does not let fame change his character. Harry also manages to find 2 loyal friends, Hermonie and Ron. Throughout the book, Harry develops deep bonds and finds a true family and home in Hogwarts. However, Harry is faced with numerous challenges and dangers throughout the years, but with the help of his friends, he manages to survive them. In the 5th book of the series, the man who murdered his parents comes back to life in full strength. Harry struggles as Voldemort kills more of his friends and terrorizes the world. Harry doesn’t know what to do or how to stop him, but with the help of the clues left by his school headmaster and his friends’ help, he was able to figure out how to stop him. Harry also finds out that there is a prophecy that he must die in order for Voldemort to die as well. The book finishes off with a grand battle between Voldemort and his followers against Harry and his supporters. Harry against all odds is able to defy the prophecy and forever remains the boy who has lived.

One of the things that attracted me to the story was the characters. The protagonist was Harry Potter, the antagonist was Voldemort, the confidants were Ron and Hermoine, the foil was probably Draco Malfoy who was one of the students at Hogwarts, and there were many secondary characters as well. I love the relationship between these characters because they are very deep and the story really shows the friendship between Harry, Ron, & Hermoine. I also love that they included many secondary characters in the story, which made the book more humorous. I think each and every character has a certain personality that makes them unique and lovable. Another thing I love about this story is the setting; the story mostly takes place in the school Hogwarts. The setting is really important because it helps us visualize the story, sets the mood, and tells us what time period the story takes place in. I think the setting of this place is really unique because it shows a really big but old school, that’s surrounded by nature, has a lot of lands, and the paintings that are located in the school also describe it a lot. The story’s message is also something that I love, and I think the author did a great job portraying this. Two of the many messages that stood out most in the story are anything is possible, and no matter how hard things are, don’t give up. In this series of books, Harry goes through many challenges, and he faces his fears, and even though when all hope seemed lost, Harry was still able to be courageous and persevere. Harry did what everyone thought was impossible to do; he defeated Voldemort and defied his prophecy by making it out alive. I think this book sends out a lot of inspiration and hope out to its readers. Another good part of the book was the plot because the author did a great job of foreshadowing in the book and withholding just enough information to make it suspenseful yet without giving the whole story out. I didn’t realize until after the book that everything that happened was connected to something. The entire climax was also very intriguing because at a point, I didn’t know who was the good guy and who was the bad guy, and the dynamic of the characters and how they fall into the plot is amazingly written.

One sentence hook: A young orphaned boy who discovers an entire wizard world and learns that he is the most famous wizard - embarks on a journey and comes across an evil centuries-old wizard and does the impossible.

OCTOBER 4, 2021

I did like this assignment because I feel like storytelling is a really important skill, and it is not something that I’m good at, so I felt like I really learned from this assignment. I feel like storytelling was a lot harder than I expected it to be because I wanted to convey my emotions and hook my readers at the same time. I think something that I should do that will help me next time is to create some sort of mind map to help organize the story. I did spend a lot of time thinking about what I should write about, I felt like that was the hardest and most time-consuming part of the assignment. If I were to do this assignment differently next time, I would try to spend more time making my writing more qualitative; I want to add more literary elements in my writing next time and I would like to add more persuasive word choice. I also want to work on following the structure of storytelling: rising action, plot, falling action, and conclusion. I was a little confused about the assignment, I understood the rubric, but at first, I didn’t really understand the actual assignment of what we were supposed to write about. Yes, I did collaborate with an EMCer to help bounce ideas off about what to write about. Overall I feel like I spent a lot of time on the story, but next time I feel like I should focus more on writing it than just thinking about what I should write about. I do hope we do this sort of assignment again so that I could improve and get better at storytelling, especially because I feel like it is such an important skill, that will help me in the future and in other classes.

OCTOBER 11, 2021

I am looking to investigate cancer.

I think I know that if you have a tumor which is a swelling in a part of your body, you might have cancer. I believe different warning signs of cancer are tumors, sudden body changes, feeling more fatigued, having eating problems. I think when cells are being produced, there is an error in the genetic code of the DNA, similar to an error in a software program that tells the cells to keep producing. I think part of why cancer is such a big problem is that doctors can’t differentiate cancer cells from normal cells. I believe many cancer surviving patients will also have a pretty good chance of getting cancer again. I think that if a person doesn’t get immediate treatment, cancer will have a better chance of spreading. I think that chemotherapy isn’t the most effective treatment for cancer because it also kills normal healthy cells. I believe although new treatments are being studied, I believe none have proved that practical yet. I don’t think scientists or doctors have found a way to only target and remove cancer cells and not remove cancer and healthy cells. I believe that so many people get cancer because they aren’t aware of the early warning signs, and by the time they catch it, it might already be too late. People may also think that their symptoms may be due to another illness and not cancer.

I known I know that cancer is a disease where cells grow uncontrollably. According to the National Cancer Institute, cancer can begin in any and all parts of your human body. Data suggest that every year 10 million people die from cancer every year. According to scientists, cancer is caused by mutations in the DNA of cells. Your risk of cancer can also be increased if you are not healthy. Doctors can diagnose cancer by performing laboratory tests and biopsies. I know a person’s lifestyle can determine your risk of getting cancer. A person’s family genetic history can also play a factor in if one gets cancer. There are many different types of cancers based on what area of the body the cells grow uncontrollably; some cancers include lung cancer, breast cancer, liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, brain cancer. According to recent statistics, the most common types of cancer are breast and lung cancer.

OCTOBER 11, 2021

• I don’t know how doctors differentiate between normal and cancerous cells

• I don’t know what types of treatments are the most efficient for cancer

• I don’t know how doctors differentiate between a tumor and just a regular swelling of the body

• I don’t know what type of tests doctors do to diagnose cancer

• I don’t know why some cancers are worse than others

• I don’t know what new treatments or experiments are being studied or trialed

• I don’t know what makes cancerous cells so dangerous

• I don’t know if cancer is contagious

• I don’t know the type of diagnostics tests are needed before beginning treatment

• I don’t know what types of doctors are involved when getting treatment for cancer

• I don’t know why many cancer patients get so many surgeries

• I don’t know if getting cancer increases your risks of getting cancer again in the future

• I don’t know what are the safest most common treatments for cancer

• I don’t know why cancer treatment makes patients so weak and sick

• I don’t know how your DNA can get damaged (damage in DNA can cause cancer)

• I don’t know why some people get cancer and why other’s don’t

I have determined that from my list of “don’t know”, I need to know what types of new treatments, trials, studies, and discoveries are being made toward cancer. This is important because I feel as though so many treatments aren’t entirely effective and I want to learn and inform others about the pros and cons of different treatments. I’d like to know what type of problems that the doctors face that prevent them from finding a cure for cancer. Since there are many different types of cancer in different parts of the human body, I will focus on liver cancer, and all the treatments to prevent liver cancer. Liver cancer is one that kills the most people, so I want to know why this cancer is so bad, and what steps are being taken to aid people who suffer from liver cancer.

NOVEMBER 1, 2021 - SDA 2 reflection

I think I spent a decent amount of time on my project. I definitely put the attention into the time I set aside, since we had quite a bit of time to work on the project and since the topic really interested me, I didn’t find it hard to be engaged in the project. I spent a lot of time researching and looking at different sources, and I learned a lot of new interesting stuff. I think something that I would do differently next time is spend more time on the actual project and not just researching. After I started researching and found out about all the new things, I just wanted to delve deeper, so next time I’m going to make sure to spend more time on my presentation part. For my project I chose to do an infographic, and I don’t think technology was a limiting factor in my project. Next time I will definitely try to spend more time on my infographic and make it more appealing and I will work on my storytelling skills. I think the September’s Person/Place/Thing assignment helped me understand that I have to explain my topic in more of a story telling way. Describing what I know, what I think I know, and what I don’t know really helped me narrow down my research to focus on the things that I don’t know. It also helped me set the stage for not only my project but for the whole year, because I know what to research and what I really want to focus on. I enjoyed this project and I think it was useful. I also loved the fact that the directions were clear, easy to follow, and organized based on what format you're making your project in.

NOVEMBER 10, 2021

Last month one of my need to know was how cancer is first formed. I found that Hundreds of genes carefully govern the process of cell division in normal cells. A balance between the activation of genes that promote cell proliferation and those that repress it is required for normal growth. It also depends on the actions of genes that indicate when damaged cells should die. A mutation in the p53 gene results in the creation of an atypical protein that plays a key role in the disruption of p53-related biological processes. Because abnormalities in these molecular and biological events contribute to the production of cancer cells, the p53 gene has a complicated association with cancer, with a p53 anomaly being observed in 60 percent of cancer cases. Cells become malignant when mutations in the genes that drive cell growth accumulate. Most cancer cells have 60 or more mutations, according to research findings from the Cancer Genome Project. The problem for medical researchers is to figure out which of these mutations causes certain types of cancer. Because many of the mutations found in these cells have nothing to do with cancer progression, this procedure is analogous to looking for a needle in a haystack. Because cancer may arise from the aberrant multiplication of any of the body's cells, there are over a hundred different varieties of cancer, each with its own specific behavior and therapeutic response. The difference between benign and malignant tumors is the most critical topic in cancer pathology. Any aberrant multiplication of cells, whether benign or malignant, is referred to as a tumor. A benign tumor, such as a common skin wart, remains limited to its original spot, not infecting nearby normal tissue or spreading to other parts of the body. A malignant tumor, on the other hand, has the ability to invade surrounding normal tissue as well as spread throughout the body via the circulatory and lymphatic systems (metastasis). Cancer is only appropriately referred to as malignant tumors, and it is cancer's propensity to penetrate and spread that makes it so hazardous. While benign tumors can typically be surgically removed, the spread of malignant tumors to other parts of the body renders them resistant to such therapy. The mutational signatures of various tumors are distinct. However, a scientific analysis of several tumor types found that certain genes are altered more frequently in cancer cells than others. For example, growth-promoting genes, such as the Ras signaling protein gene, are frequently altered in cancer cells, becoming hyperactive and resulting in cells that are too activated by growth receptors. Some chemotherapy medications function by inhibiting the action of growth-signaling proteins, which helps to prevent mutations.

NOVEMBER 17, 2021

My question is how environmental cancer develops in human bodies and what causes it to develop. I really wanted to study cancer because I was fascinated by it. Since I don’t know a whole lot about cancer to research more about what causes cancer and how it develops. I then decided to focus on environmental cancer and not genetic, because people can actually fight against and do more things to prevent environmental cancer, whereas in genetic cancer people can’t do much to prevent it. I also want to spread awareness to people on how they can prevent themselves from getting environmental cancer because there are a lot more causes to this type of cancer.

This question matters to me because so many people are dying due to cancer, and since environmental cancer accounts for 70-90% of cancer cases, I believe that everyone should know how to protect themselves from it, and I would also like to know how to protect myself from it as well. This question matters to others in this field because this is really the basic question, because learning about how cancer develops can lead people in this field to learn how cancer works, forms, and eventually how to develop new treatments and help protect people from this type of cancer. One of my sources was ProQuest, I chose this because I knew it was a reliable source and it had really detailed information about all the different aspects of cancer. It really helped me decide what topic I wanted to focus on. I also used an article by mayo clinic, because it had really detailed information of what causes cancer, this article helped me understand the principles of what causes cancer. I also used an article from the National Cancer Institute, because this article helped me realize how big of a deal cancer is and how much effect it can have on people. I also learned in this article about the different types of cancer and how cancer develops.

For my SDA this month I decided to do a video on the Prezi presentation. For this SDA I will research how one’s lifestyle can affect the rate of getting cancer. In specific I will research how substance abuse and drugs increase the risk of cancer, and how the changes in your body caused by these substances affect your body diffrently. I will also address if cancer develops diffrently in a person who uses drugs.

“Cancer.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 27 Apr. 2021, http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cancer/symptoms-causes/syc-20370588.

“What Is Cancer?” National Cancer Institute, http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/what-is-cancer.

Pro quest - eLibrary database

DECEMBER 1, 2021 - SDA 3 reflection

I spent quite a lot of time on this project. For the last project I felt a bit rushed at the end, but this time I scheduled certain times that I would spend on this project and I feel like that really helped me. I think I did put my attention into the time I allotted for this project, especially since it's a topic that interests me. It was pretty easy to be attentive and really engage in my research and make good use of the time I spent doing this project. I chose to do a Prezi presentation. I chose this form of presentation because I feel like I could easily talk about my topic and show displays that would help the audience understand. Since I am researching a science related topic, I feel like displays are vital to my presentation and by doing a video I could also talk about my topic and not just have a slideshow with a bunch of words. The nice thing about using prezi was I could organize my information using topics and subtopics, and I loved this feature and I felt like it helped organize my presentation a lot more. I really liked the idea of choosing our own format. Since everyone is doing a different topic, some formats will work better with some topics. Giving us the idea to choose also gave us the ability to explore more formats and be free and be more creative. Locating resources for research was not that hard, but I did find that I had to read a lot of articles to get the information I needed. I used pro quest and Gale as my databases for this project, I think these sites gave really good background and indepth information. I feel that I conveyed my research and evidence effectively. The directions were pretty clear and understandable.

DECEMBER 13, 2021

• Difficulties in cancer treatments

• People don’t beleive cancer is genetic

• Cancer treatment costs to much

• Cancer treatment does more harm to the body then good

There are many difficulties in cancer treatments. One of them being that treatment costs too much money for people to afford. Another difficulty is that some cancer treatments such as chemotherapy may be more dangerous and harmful to the body. This problem matters because cancer treatment is necessary in order for people with cancer to live. Having access to quality treatment is important and vital for our world to prevent so many deaths against cancer. It is estimated that cancer treatments can cause more than 10,000 per month. According to AARP 11 of the 12 cancer drugs the FDA approved in 2012 were priced above $100,000 per year.

Another major difficulty is that there are people in the world who believe cancer isn’t preventable. This is important because if people don’t think that cancer is preventable then they won't take any precautions. The head of the National Cancer Institute has warned of as many as 10,000 excess deaths in years to come due to not taking care of your body. According to the CDC, Cancers Associated with Overweight and Obesity Make up 40 percent of Cancers Diagnosed in the United States. This is really bad and a major problem if 40% of people are getting cancer because of obesity, when obesity can be prevented with proper care.

Another problem is that there are difficulties in developing cancer treatments. For example, targeting cancer stem cells is difficult and problems associated with cancer diagnosis make it difficult to treat. This is important because without being able to overcome these difficulties it makes cancer treatment much more difficult. Metastasis is also another thing that poses a huge problem in cancer treatment because we don’t have the technology to detect certain metastatic events.

I think my biggest weakness right now is brainstorming problems to research about my topic for the midterm. I have been struggling to find problems about muy topics that interest me and that I could really go in-depth about. I noticed a lot of the topics that I found were pretty specific and it’s not something I could spend a lot of time researching. I think my biggest strength though is being able to stay on top of all my work, turning in my work on time, and being self-motivated to do additional research for this class even with a busy schedule.

https://www.asbestos.com/featured-stories/high-cost-of-cancer-treatment/

https://thehill.com/changing-america/opinion/578780-cancer-is-largely-preventable-but-most-people-dont-know-it

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p1003-vs-cancer-obesity.html#:~:text=Cancers%20Associated%20with%20Overweight%20and,States%20%7C%20CDC%20Online%20Newsroom%20%7C%20CDC

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4024849/

DECEMBER 20, 2021

QUESTION: What are the dangers and difficulties of cancer treatment

I have decided to research the difficulties that come with cancer treatment for my midterm. I know a lot of people talk about the negative side effects that come with cancer treatment. I am very curious and interested in finding why cancer treatment is so dangerous. This field is very important to me because I want to research why cancer is such a terrible and incurable disease. In my previous posts, I’ve talked about how cancer is caused and what is cancer. Now I think it's important to address the treatment of cancer and how it can be harmful. The reason why cancer is such a feared disease is because there is no cure and many of the treatments can cause more harm to your body. For example, chemotherapy is the major treatment used for cancer, however, this treatment not only kills cancer cells but also kills the regular cells in your body, causing your body to weaken. I want to know why there isn’t a treatment that is safe and only targets cancerous cells. I want to know what further discoveries of technologies need to be made before we have a safe treatment.

Over December break, I am very much looking forward to relaxing. I also have my road test over the December break, so I really hope to get my license. I also have 2 track meets over break and I’m looking forward to that. I am also job shadowing my doctor, so my break is pretty busy. In my free time, I really hope to spend some time with my family and friends, and SLEEP!!! I hope to catch up on my sleep and sleep in, because I’ve been very sleep deprived during the week due to sports, school, tests, clubs, work.

Annotation Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13jsINFQNUyNtU_XI_eU6V6fNBZbcqFvN/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=110050354000009299820&rtpof=true&sd=true

JANUARY 12, 2022

QUESTION: How do cancer treatments pose dangers and difficulties for cancer patients?

ARTICLE: go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T003&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=37&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=4&docId=GALE%7CCX4020200080&docType=Topic+overview&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=&prodId=GVRL&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CCX4020200080&searchId=R3&userGroupName=nysl_ca_guild&inPS=true

SUMMARY: I got this article from the database gale ebooks. This article is written by Susan Aldridge and it’s taken out of the book “Biotechnology: in context.” This article talks specifically about chemotherapy and the drugs they use. This article mentions how the success rate of chemotherapy is dependent on the drug and type of tumor. This article also goes into depth about the many side effects of chemo, for example, the bone marrow cells that produce all the types of blood cells are actually destroyed, resulting in lower-than-usual blood counts and lowered immunity. This article also mentions that some tumors may even be resistant to chemotherapy, so it’s not a guaranteed fix. For example, brain cancer is not very responsive to chemotherapy. The treatment of chemotherapy is highly dependent on what drugs you use because if you want to get the highest success rates you must use the most efficient drug for that specific tumor. There are many dangers where these drugs end up doing more harm than good.

DATABASE: Gale ebooks

SEARCH TERMS: Side effects of chemotherapy

RELEVANCY: This article is relevant to what I’m researching because it explains how this one specific cancer treatment can affect the body in a negative way. The drugs that are used in chemo harm not only the tumor cells but also harm healthy cells in our body causing severe harm to cancer patients. The article even mentions how some drugs can be toxic enough to kill a cancer patient. I think this article gives very vital information on the severity of these drugs and in what circumstances these drugs are harmful.

NEW KEY TERMS:

• Neutropenia: decrease in neutrophil count in the blood, which decreases immunity

• Apoptosis: cell death caused by oxygen deprivation or other injuries

• Liposomes: the outer layer of lipid molecules

JANUARY 19, 2022

DATABASE: Gale

I’m still continuing to research the dangers that come with cancer treatment. The second article I chose is published by Dove Medical Press Limited. In this article, they addressed the experiences of Chemotherapy-Induced Myelosuppression and how it impacted people. The purpose of this article was to determine which chemotherapy side effects are the most distressing to cancer patients, to determine which health care professionals pay the most attention to symptoms associated with chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression (CIM) from the patient's perspective, and to capture the "patient voice" describing how CIM affects their daily lives. This article shows in-depth examples from real patients who have undergone CIM. This article was written by Robert S. Epstein, Upal K. Basu Roy, Matti Aapro, Tehseen Salimi, Donald Moran, and JoAnn Krenitsky. Dr. Robert S. Epstein is a family medicine doctor in Nyack, New York, he is also an epidemiologist and served as president of the Medco-UBC Division and as Chief Research and Development officer of Medco Health Solutions, Inc., a managed healthcare company. Upal K. Basu Roy, PhD, MS, MPH is vice president of LUNGevity Foundation, the nation’s leading lung cancer-focused nonprofit organization. Dr. Aapro is a member of the European School of Oncology's Executive Board (ESO). He is a member of the Executive Board of the International Society for Geriatric Oncology (SIOG). He is a former President of the Multinational Association for Cancer Supportive Care (MASCC). Tehseen Salimi is a healthcare executive who has led revolutionary patient-centered initiatives to close evidence and value gaps. Donald Moran is an internal medicine specialist. JoAnn Krenitsky works under Dr. Epstein as his vice president in Epstein health. As you can see all of these authors are very well specialized in their fields, so combining their talents and knowledge together they were able to provide the real data and explain the effects of CIM with evidence to back up their claims.

This article is a lot different from last week because last week’s article focuses more on the drugs used in chemotherapy and the side effects the drugs cause. This week’s article, however, goes more in-depth and gives a patient perspective as well. This week's article is also a scholarly article and provides actual researched data and responses. The thing about this article is that it’s really good at providing examples and their research and backing it up with evidence, however they do not provide any proposed solution. In this article, it said 55% of people undergoing CIM faced bothersome side effects that they rated to be a 9/10 on a 1-10 scale. CIM was found to have a greater influence on younger individuals in general. When compared to individuals who did not experience these side effects, those who experienced exhaustion, thought they had a compromised immune system or saw easy bruising/bleeding reported a big life impact. I learned that CIM was short for chemotherapy-induced myelosuppression and CRC is short for colorectal cancer. I also learned that cytotoxic chemotherapy is a drug that is toxic to ALL cells, not just cancer cells.

Works Cited

Epstein, Robert S., et al. "Cancer Patients' Perspectives and Experiences of Chemotherapy-Induced Myelosuppression and Its Impact on Daily Life." Patient Preference and Adherence, vol. 15, 30 Apr. 2021, pp. 453+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A669790854/GPS?u=nysl_ca_guild&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=c43e4cb9. Accessed 20 Jan. 2022.

Agnese. “European Cancer Organisation.” Matti Aapro, MD - European Cancer Organisation, https://www.europeancancer.org/51-matti-aapro-md.html.

“Dr. Donald Moran, MD.” Healthgrades, https://www.healthgrades.com/physician/dr-donald-moran-xjg8n.

“Epstein Health.” Epsteinhealth.com, http://www.epsteinhealth.com/.

“Lungevity Promotes Dr. Upal Basu Roy to Vice President of Research.” LUNGevity, https://www.lungevity.org/news/media-releases/lungevity-promotes-dr-upal-basu-roy-to-vice-president-of-research.

“Robert S. Epstein, M.D.” Fate Therapeutics, 18 Jan. 2022, https://fatetherapeutics.com/robert-s-epstein-m-d/.

“Upal Basu Roy.” Health Equity Initiative, https://www.healthequityinitiative.org/upal-basu-roy.html.

JANUARY 26, 2022

This article proposes an alternative treatment for cancer that’s less invasive. The purpose of this article is to prove that Integrating acupuncture is a non-pharmacological alternative that is effective for symptom management. To offer a concise sketch of acupuncture in cancer therapy, the article analyzed data concentrating on acupuncture mechanisms and uses. The proposed solution that is proposed in this article is to use Integrating acupuncture to relieve symptoms. This article is published by Medknow Publications. I believe their organizational goals are to provide a solution or treatment to relieve symptoms and use data, research, and experiments to show the audience how effective this treatment actually is. This article goes in-depth about cancer pain, the different symptoms, data collection & analysis, different methods, theories, and mechanisms.

The authors are Tsai-Ju Chien, Chia-Yu Liu and Chung-Hua Hsu. Tsai-Ju Chien is a researcher and professor, he specifically researches cancer prevention, oncology, and quality of life. Chia-Yu Liu has a Ph.D. in medicine and has published many articles based on research of the effects of certain treatments in chemotherapy and cancer. Chung-Hua Hsu is a scientist who has researched specifically how our cells react to certain treatments, drugs, etc.

Acupoints are visceral response points on the body surface where the Qi of the viscera and meridians is transfused, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine theory. Triggering these acupuncture sites improves Qi and blood flow while also regulating visceral function. Many investigations in animals and people in the latter half of the twentieth century revealed many biological reactions connected to acupuncture, including (a) neuronal regulation, (b) endocrine control, and (c) immunological regulation. Some studies have found a link between acupuncture and the autonomic nervous system (ANS) in neural control. In this sector, acupuncture is a well-known practice. Several studies have shown that the therapy can help with a variety of cancer-related symptoms. However, the study design was not homogeneous in terms of the study population, sample size, methodological quality, TENS mode, treatment duration, route of administration, and outcome measures employed, and some ambiguous findings were achieved. The clinical use and study of acupuncture in oncology should be examined at the same time, based on the holistic cancer treatment perspective and current RCT evidence. Standardized clinical protocols, as well as the types and points of acupuncture for each symptom, should be clarified and investigated further to be more persuasive. Acupuncture may become more significant in integrative cancer therapy as more promising data emerges.

I used the Gale Academic OneFile as my database. I searched for alternative cancer treatments but the ones I found were very specific. I then started searching for less invasive cancer treatments on google and I found some examples, one of which was acupuncture and I used that as my search term to find my article.

Some of the key terms that were new to me were Kupperman index, which is a menopausal symptom questionnaire, Xerostomia, a condition in which the salivary glands in your mouth don't make enough saliva to keep your mouth wet, Electroacupuncture is a form of acupuncture where a small electric current is passed between pairs of acupuncture needles.

Works Cited

Chien, Tsai-Ju, et al. "Integrating acupuncture into cancer care." Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine, vol. 3, no. 4, Oct.-Dec. 2013, p. 234. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A411564028/AONE?u=nysl_ca_guild&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=8fc810c7. Accessed 26 Jan. 2022.

February 28, 2022 - SDA reflection

Prior to my midterm, I did use databases for my previous assignments, although I don’t think I used that many scholarly articles prior to this assignment. I think reading scholarly articles was pretty different than other research-based texts because it contained a lot more in-depth information. These articles also talked about the different experiments that were being made and also had a lot of statistics and facts. These articles also included a detailed description of their research and findings and analysis. I think being limited to scholarly articles was helpful because it improved my research skills and I was also able to learn more in-depth information. However, I feel like just being limited to scholarly articles sometimes was a bit hard to understand sometimes because sometimes the scholarly articles would be to complex for me to understand, so it was helpful to use regular articles on google first to learn some background information first. I learned that finding a good scholarly article very much depends on the keywords you use to search up. I really found it interesting how we were able to gain information from a professional on this topic.

I think the most challenging part was just figuring out what to research and what topics I should cover. After I found out what topics or treatments to research it was pretty easy and straightforward. Yes, the essential topic that I started with at the beginning of January was answered in this SDA. I think on the first part of my midterm I lacked in critical thinking because my topics were very broad and I didn’t go in depth into any of the topics I talked about. I think I did a pretty good job on my creativity and my critical thinking in the second part of my midterm. I will use what I learned in this months research to help me dwell deeper in my topic and find a good topic to share.

March 2, 2022

In the upcoming month, I’m looking to research new research being made in cancer discoveries and what has to be made, and how this is affecting cancer patients? Looking back to why I wanted to do this topic, I simply wanted to investigate cancer. I think sharing with my audience something new and what discoveries are being made and how it affects cancer patients will give a lot of awareness and inform my audience. I’m also looking to see the patient side of things, and how these new treatments and discoveries have impacted them. I would also like to find out what new discoveries of changes Cancer patients would like to see in the future.

In March I would like to explore Guided Inquiry. I think this type of inquiry is the best for my topic because it gives me the freedom to choose my topic and essential question and I get to choose an assignment from a limited number of options provided by my coordinator. I think my essential question is something that requires a guided inquiry because of the depth my topic reels into I think having structured journals and assignments given to me, would help me organize my topic and answer my question better.

I think having an SDA like the one given to us in the midterm has been the most successful. I think for me when I do my SDA I find it very successful to use some sort of interactive presentation along with a voice recording of myself explaining the topics through the presentation. I think this type of inquiry will help me set myself up for success because this type of inquiry is very similar to the midterm. I think it gives me enough freedom as well as a proper set of guidelines to follow.

March 9, 2022

Essential Question: What new treatments are being made or have to be made? What are the patient’s views on these treatments, how are they and the people around them affected?

I plan to collaborate with Sameera Nallanthighal, she works at Albany med and is researching ovarian cancer. I reached out to a professional at Albany med who was researching breast cancer at first, but since I told her that I will be focusing on new treatments and advancements that have to be made, she referred me to Dr. Nallanthighal. I have already emailed her Dr. Nallanthighal and she has agreed to let me interview her. Dr. Nallanthighal has a Ph.D. and she works in a lab where she tests certain drugs that manufacturers sent her to test their effectiveness. She works in the lab and tests combinations of formulas and drugs to test their effectiveness. I also plan to talk with my friend’s mom, Priya who suffered from lung cancer in her 20s. I think talking to her will help me gain knowledge on the patient side of treatment. I also plan to talk to a teacher in the school whose dad is a two-time cancer survivor. I think talking to my teacher will help me gain knowledge on how cancer not only affects the person diagnosed but the people around them. I think collaborating with these 3 kids of people will help me better understand the different perspectives and views.

March 16, 2022

This month I’m researching new treatments that are being made in cancer and what treatments or scientific advances still have to be made. I will also be looking at how cancer patients view treatments and how open or hopeful they are for new treatments. I think it’s important to understand the patient's side of things and get an understanding of what advances they want to see made. I will be taking the interview pathway. I am collaborating with Dr. Sameera Nallanthighal who has a Ph.D. and is researching ovarian cancer at Albany med. I have contacted her and set up a meeting for Thursday, Mar 17, 2022. I have also contacted my friend’s mom who is a cancer survivor and she has also agreed to let me interview her. I did plan on interviewing my physics teacher because his dad has cancer and I wanted to see how having a family member diagnosed with cancer can affect the family, but unfortunately, his dad died this past week and decided it wouldn’t be appropriate to interview him at this time. Currently, I’m still looking for someone whose family member has been touched by cancer, but if not I still have 2 great people to interview this week. I have already reserahced and read Dr. Nallanthighal published a paper in order to get a better sense of her research. I plan to take the time to write out my questions and plan what to discuss in our interview these next few days.

March 23, 2022

For my SDA I’m going to take a look at the new treatments and advancements to be made and also look at the patient and expert perspective. I interviewed two people last week, one was a researcher and another was a cancer survivor. I learned a lot of new information and I gained a lot of insight on new treatments and how treatments affect patients and their views on them. I plan to incorporate all the information I researched and tie them in with the information I received from the people I interviewed. I plan to make a video including a visual representation. I plan to use the information I received and talk about the current rate and how well we are doing with looking at new treatments and what parts they’re struggling on. I’m also going to talk about what cancer patients want to see in their treatments. I’m gonna talk about what the current problems that patients dislike and like with the current cancer treatments and talk about what could be improved. I still am not sure what platform I want to use, I’ve been looking into making a Powtoon video.

April 6, 2022 - SDA reflection

I found this SDA to be very fulfilling. I think as I’m coming to the end of the year it was a great SDA to tie in my research but also look at the real-world perspectives of different people and how they vary. I think combining these viewpoints and looking at the similarities and the differences and looking at it as a whole will help us gain a better picture of what we should actually do to improve it. Last SDA I focused on the science side of new advancements and treatments, so now to look at the real views of people and actually get to gain knowledge on current research and projects that are going on was very interesting. I think the collaboration part was super insightful and I truly enjoyed it and wished I had done more. I think collaborating gave me well knowing that I wouldn’t have thought of on my own or found on the internet, because by collaborating I’m able to understand someone’s feelings and opinions. It also opened my eyes to see that every single person will have a different experience and viewpoint. My approach to this SDA was a bit different because of the collaboration. I had to first see what information I would receive from my collaboration and tie it in with additional information, whereas normally in SDA I normally jump ahead to research and see where it takes me. I discovered a lot of important information, I mainly realized that it’s not just new treatments that have to be made but economical changes that have to be made as well. I think I would stick to guided inquiry because I feel like it gave me the freedom I needed to research and gave guidance so I had a better understanding of what I should be researching on. I feel like researching is just such a huge topic and I think having some sort of baseline is important so I would’ve chosen guided research. As for my symposium, I really want to teach others something they don’t already know. I could talk about the different ways to help prevent cancer and how it will benefit everyone. I might also talk about the importance of research and how more importance should be given to that if we want to make more advancements and lead to a better future.

April 13, 2022 Journal Post

I’m worried about writing my speech to keep the readers engaged through the whole thing. Since I’m researching a science topic I want to keep my speech and terminology so everyone can understand it. I also am a little worried about the organization of my speech since I’m tying in parts from all my research throughout the year. For my symposium, I plan to tie in bits of information that I have learned all throughout the year. I want to include information from one of my first SDAs where I talked about the natural prevention of cancer and what actions people can take to stop the spread themselves. I also want to tie in information about my interviews and what steps we as a community have to take. I want to tell people how we have to work together as a team and community. I also want to include a little bit about current treatments and upcoming treatments and talk more about cancer itself so the audience has some background information. I will connect it to the theme of the greater good because I will talk about all the things we can do to help improve the future and people’s lives which is obviously for the greater good.

Link to symposium slideshow: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oLcMfEoiyvC6xLZK3gJJ4C_X5kYVmj_mENFU42Im72Q/edit?usp=sharing

June 10, 2022 Journal Post

I did not find the freedom of this course to be challenging. I feel like because of the freedom of the course I was able to more find what I was interested in and what I wanted to do. I’m so used to just following assignments and what my teachers tell me to do it did feel a bit strange at first because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. However, as the year went on I was quickly able to find what interested me and the freedom this course gives me is truly one of the best things about this program because we don't always get this freedom in other classes. My coordinator was very helpful to me throughout the year. My coordinator always guided me well and gave me advice where I struggled and supported me all the way through. My coordinator helped me by sending me articles and giving me questions to think about for my journals and sda. She was also super flexible and was always available to meet and always responded to my emails really fast. I would not have been able to gain so much knowledge without my coordinator guiding me. I think I struggled a bit in some of the sda’s because I didn’t go super in-depth into what my was topic. Sometimes I felt like I spent a lot of time researching and could've spent more time putting more thought and details into my journals and sda’s. As far as motivation goes I know I was kinda nervous since this wasn’t an actual class that I wouldn’t be motivated, but it was quite the opposite. I loved exploring my topic and since it was a topic that interested me I found myself pretty motivated. Asking questions was a crucial part of my research. As I learned new information, questioning it helped me piece my research together and I was able to learn how everything worked. For example, when I first started researching what caused cancer I learned the various reasons but it wasn’t until I asked questions and went into further research that I learned the specific chemicals and characteristics that can cause cancer. The level of research and investigation this year has prepared me for the next step in my education. The level of thinking and researching has helped me improve my writing skills and I know the skills I have picked up in this class will definitely be beneficial to me in later years. One of the many things I love about this class is the environment. The students and coordinators created such a safe and supportive environment I was never afraid to take risks or talk to my peers or coordinator. The assignment I’m most proud of this year would be part 2 of my midterm and my symposium speech. I think those were the two things I excelled at and improved a lot in. As far as my symposium speech goes I thought it went well. Although I did not really fully experience delivering my symposium speech because I didn’t get to do it in front of an audience I think I did a pretty good job speaking. I personally enjoyed this class a lot I didn’t find anything that needed to be changed and I look forward to doing EMC again next year.