What's in the canister, Kimberly? That's what everyone wants to know when Kimberly Totten leaves the operating room carrying a metal canister that sometimes is smoking around the edges.
The answer? It's tissue samples that have been flash frozen in liquid nitrogen for the McDonald Research Laboratory, a facility opened by the Ovarian Cancer Institute on the campus of Georgia Tech in 2004.
 Photos by BARRY WILLIAMS/Special |
| Surgical technologist Kimberly Totten repackages a sample of omentum in an operating room at Northside Hospital
in Atlanta. Omentum is a fat organ connected to the stomach. This sample
will be tested to see if cancer has metastasized from a patient's ovary. |
 |
If you look at the larger picture, Totten could be carrying the key to finding a reliable, early diagnostic test for ovarian cancer or answers to help develop a more effective chemotherapy treatment for the disease.
As a surgical technologist, Totten's job is to collect tissue samples that doctors and scientists will use for ongoing studies.
"Not many surgical techs would get to do what I'm doing. I feel very lucky to have a small part in this vital research, and [I] love every aspect of my job," said Totten, ST.
In 2005, Totten was a surgical technologist at Northside Hospital in Atlanta and often worked with Dr. Benedict B. Benigno, a gynecologic oncologist dedicated to researching cancer of the ovaries. She heard about an opening at the Ovarian Cancer Institute, asked Benigno about it and he offered her a job there.
Totten was interested, but wasn't sure she wanted to give up being a surgical technologist or leave Northside, where she had worked for seven years.
"He [Benigno] kept telling me I was missing a great opportunity, and finally worked it out so that I could work for the McDonald lab and work as a surgical tech at Northside every other Friday, to keep my skills up," she said. "I was fortunate to have the blessing and support of my former boss, Vicki Barnett. She told me she wanted me to go spread my wings."
In her new position, Totten goes into surgery with Benigno and Dr. Stephen Salmieri to collect samples of ovarian tissue, omentum and other metastatic tissue, as well as whole blood and blood serum.
"We have the consent of patients before they go into surgery, and we only take from pieces that would be removed to go to pathology anyway," Totten said. "I take samples from benign as well as cancerous tissue, because the researchers need a comparison."
When she first started working for the Ovarian Cancer Institute, Benigno would take samples during surgery and give them to Totten. But now he trusts her to take what she needs.
Besides paying meticulous attention to detail when labeling samples, Totten has learned to read and understand pathology and CAT scan reports so she can record results and maintain the lab's patient database.
"John McDonald [chairman of the School of Biology at Georgia Tech] and Dr. Nina Schubert at the lab trained me in what to look for [when] gathering data and reading medical charts," she said. "Dr. Schubert was my 'go-to' person. She taught me to look at the details when reading a person's medical history. We have a very extensive database now."
When she was younger, Totten mistakenly believed that a Pap smear would tell her everything she needed to know about possible cervical and uterine cancer in a patient.
"The test only covers the cervix, and I was in a medical field and didn't know that. How many other women don't know?" she said.
The problem with ovarian cancer is that symptoms can be overlooked, making early detection less likely.
"There's a big difference in the rate of success in treating Stage 1 or 2 [cancer]. That's why Dr. Benigno and Dr. McDonald are trying to find a test to detect it earlier," Totten said.
Totten is glad that she took Benigno's advice to join his team.
"Now that I'm involved with research, I look at things so differently, and I feel so fortunate to know so much more," she said. "I'm passionate about being part of this research and proud of what I do."
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