Dedicated training aids medical student’s ability to integrate triathlon wins with medical research

Third-year medical student Matthew Marquardt is committed to training and learning to become exceptional in both triathlon and medicine. He turned pro in 2023, during his second year of medical school, then decided to take a research year after his preclinical years to dive more deeply into developing innovative, 3D-printed surgical guides and models for patients undergoing treatment for head and neck cancers.

His research, “In-house 3D Modeling Associated with Margin-negative Resection in Mandibular Oral Cavity Malignancies,” was recently published in Oral Oncology. The research evaluated whether the intraoperative use of patient-specific, 3D-printed models is associated with better surgical margin outcomes for T4 oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma resection. Their findings show that:

1. Study subjects were split into those who received an in-house 3D model for intraoperative use, and a control group that did not receive a model or other commercial, virtual planning.
2. Atter the review of 147 patients, 68 met final inclusion criteria for in-house 3D model (n = 37) and control (n = 31) groups. Cohorts were statistically similar across demographics, tumor and operative characteristics.
3. Surgical status is a key prognostic indicator for oral cavity carcinoma.
4. 3D models can produce patient-specific anatomic models for intraoperative use, increasing rates of margin-negative ablation compared to conventional surgical approaches.
5. 3D models had superior margin-negative rates versus standard surgical techniques, and better margin status might impact the need for adjuvant therapies. This could potentially improve survival outcomes in larger patient populations.