Summer Spent Researching
Summer Spent Researching
While many students elect to spend their long summer break on holiday, 5th year medical student Mustafa Sabanli, 25, recently benefitted from a 10-week research-based summer studentship. The project was run under the auspices of the Department of Academic Surgery, University of Otago, Christchurch Medical School and sponsored by Christchurch Radiology Group (CRG).
Under the guidance of Prof Frank Frizelle, Professor of Colorectal Surgery at Christchurch Hospital and Academic Head of the Department of Surgery, and University of Otago Clinical Lecturers in Radiology Drs Adrian Balasingam and Wayne Bailey, Sabanli painstakingly collated information relating to the failure to diagnose colorectal cancer (CRC) using CT colonography (CTC).
As a non-invasive procedure, CTC is much better tolerated by older patients, and offers potential as a future screening tool.
"Colorectal cancer is the second most common malignancy in both men and women in New Zealand," says Sabanli. "Over 2500 people are diagnosed with CRC each year, with over 1100 deaths annually, so this is an important area."
The research employed the same methodology as used in two earlier studies into the effectiveness of barium enema and conventional optical colonography - two other imaging methods for CRC - allowing direct comparison between the different modalities.
"We wanted to learn how our screening measures up to international best practice and other forms of imaging. Most importantly, by knowing our 'miss rate' of invasive cancer and determining the reasons behind it, we're best placed to improve our detection," says Sabanli.
The results are highly encouraging. The Christchurch study found a miss rate of only 4.2% - an improvement on the earlier studies of 6.7% for barium enemas and 5.9% for conventional colonography.
"Ultimately, the hope is to deliver a robust screening method that can be used across the population to reduce deaths from this unpleasant disease," says Sabanli.
Originally from Istanbul, Turkey, Sabanli arrived in Auckland with his immediate family in 2000, aged 17. Prior to that, his father's career as a mechanical engineer had taken the family to Cape Town, South Africa when Sabanli was nine. It was there as a child he met heart transplant pioneer Dr Christiaan Barnard at a restaurant Barnard owned, and knew he wanted to become a surgeon.
Undaunted by not getting into medical school at the first attempt, Sabanli graduated with an honours degree in physiology from Auckland University, before joining Otago University medical school. Now in Christchurch for his clinical training, he says the hardest thing is deciding which branch of surgery to specialise in. "I seem to fall in love with each different surgical specialty I'm exposed to."
