Medical Student Studies Cancer With Catholic Health Physician

Rachel Radigan has long had a passion for helping others, and coupled with her love of science and anatomy, is pursuing a future career as a physician. After earning her Master of Public Health at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, she is now enrolled in the College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM), working toward a combined Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine and Master of Academic Medicine.

Radigan’s acceptance to NYITCOM’s Academic Medicine Scholars Program enables her to earn a master’s degree in academic medicine in one year, after which she will resume her medical studies and graduate with her D.O. next year. The scholarship year offers students supervised research and teaching experience, as well as mentorship on research to be presented at the end of the program and submitted for publication in scholarly journals.

New York Tech News spoke with Radigan to learn more about her chosen topic, “Long-Term Survival and Undetectable Circulating Tumor DNA Following Comprehensive Involved Site Radiotherapy for Oligometastases,”recently published in Nature, marking her successful completion of the Academic Medicine Scholars Program.

Can you explain your research regarding circulating cancer tumor DNA?
As a tumor grows, the tumor cells shed their DNA, which can later be found in blood samples of patients if active disease is still present—known as circulating tumor DNA. A negative circulating tumor DNA test is associated with highly favorable survival and can help declare further remission of cancer—known as molecular remission.

My study reported long-term outcomes and characteristics of oligometastatic patients, who are patients with one to five metastatic sites in their body and who remain alive and free of recurrence at more than two-year follow-up appointments following radiation therapy in combination with systemic therapy (chemotherapy or immunotherapy). These patients are deemed to be exceptional responders—patients who respond to treatments that are not effective for most other patients.

Who was your research mentor?
Through NYITCOM’s partnership with Catholic Health and with the help of Professor of Biomedical Sciences Dong Zhang, Ph.D., and Associate Professor of Clinical Specialties Maria Plummer, M.D., I was able to connect with Johnny Kao, M.D., of Catholic Health’s Good Samaritan University Hospital. Dr. Kao is director of the hospital’s Cancer Institute and chair of the Radiation Oncology department.

What was your role in this research?
I met with the exceptional responders, gathered their data and test results, and analyzed the data. I presented some of our data at the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society in New York City, and together with Dr. Kao, we wrote our manuscript for publication.

Upon research completion, what did you discover about the topic? What kind of real-world impact can this research have?
Patients with distant metastases historically were considered uniformly incurable. Patients with oligometastases treated with comprehensive, dose-intensive radiation, the majority in combination with systemic therapy, can achieve long-term complete response. This study reports highly diverse clinical presentations all resulting in exceptional response.

The concept of molecular complete remission in metastatic patients using a bespoke circulating tumor DNA assay increases confidence in depth of response. The overarching goal is to increase the percentage of patients achieving exceptional response, most likely through improved systemic therapy.

As you graduate next year, what advice do you have for medical students?

Be resilient and never give up on something you want to achieve.