"Medical Mystery: Student Stops Needing Sleep" - Dr. William Inabnet
Cristina Speirs, 22, was a self-proclaimed "health freak" during her senior year of college, which is all the more reason she would have never guessed that her body would betray her the way it did.
Doctors first noticed a problem at Speirs' annual checkup in the fall of 2012 when they found that her potassium levels were low, but her blood pressure was "through the roof." The MRI would reveal that Speirs had normal kidneys. It was a 10-centimeter tumor that the technician was seeing. She met William Inabnet, MD, Professor of Surgery, and Co-Director of the Adrenal Center at The Mount Sinai Hospital. Upon learning that Speirs' tumor was producing two hormones – cortisol and aldosterone – he feared that the tumor was cancerous. Inabnet said he removed the stage 2 cancer, describing the tumor as "sticky" because it stuck to Speirs' liver. Called an adrenal cortical carcinoma, Speirs' tumor affects one in several hundred thousand people, he said. Inabnet removed it all. More than a year later, Speirs is still cancer-free, but she takes medication to be sure the cancer doesn't return. Learn more
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