Request for Funding
Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2011

All descriptions must contain enough detail to permit an assessment of the problem that is to be addressed and the methodologies that are to be employed. Please be careful to outline the role that the student will play in the project that is described. Please ensure that all relevant approval numbers (IRB, IACUC) are provided.

Mentor: John Mansour, M.D.                   
Department:              Surgery (Surgical Oncology)
Room number:         NB2.402
Mail Code:                 8548
Phone number:        214.648.5870
E-mail:                       john.mansour@utsouthwestern.edu
Project title: Perioperative Outcomes for Patients Undergoing Complex Resections of Intraabdominal and Extremity Malignancy

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): IRB 022008-072      

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): 

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects): Patient-based research.

Brief Description of Project:
The investigators will perform a retrospective review of the clinical information systems at Parkland Hospital and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.  Using operative records, the investigators will identify patients undergoing operative intervention with a preoperative or postoperative diagnosis of gastrointestinal malignancy or sarcoma.   The time period to be studied includes 1990 to the present. All patients meeting eligibility criteria during this time period will be included.  There is no predefined limitation to the number of patients to be included in this investigation. 

Once these patients have been identified, protected health information will be gathered retrospectively from the clinical databases mentioned above. Clinical information to be collected includes patient age, gender, medical history, physical examination data, operative and procedural details, perioperative course, pathologic assessment, radiologic information (plain radiographs, computed tomography scans, magnetic resonance imaging scans, positron emission tests), tumor status at the time of clinical followup, and patient status for the remainder of the patient’s lifetime.

We are particularly interested in the relationship between preoperative patient factors and the outcome, both surgical and oncologic, following these typically complex surgical interventions.  This work may serve as a foundation for further translational investigations incorporating tissue collected from these patients as part of a separate clinical trial.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

Kevin Connolly – 2010 to present
Osman Jaffer – 2010 to present
Alfredo Fiallo – 2011
Nguyen (Blake) Lam – 2010