The University of Kansas Health System is treating a total of 48 COVID patients today, down from 49 yesterday. Other significant numbers:

• 28 with the active virus today, 32 yesterday
• 3 in ICU, 3 yesterday
• 1 on a ventilator, 1 yesterday
• 20 hospitalized but out of acute infection phase, 17 yesterday

Key points from today’s guests:

Shalena Prude, breast cancer survivor

• She is coming up on almost 10 years of breast cancer survivorship. She joined the breast cancer support group years ago and one of the ladies in the support group always said to celebrate every milestone. She is celebrating key milestones and doing well.
• She had a second opinion at MD Anderson and believes that a second opinion helps you to solidify the information. It helped her to listen further to understand her diagnosis in a deeper way.
• From there she was able to come back to Kansas City with a different feel about her protocol and her approach to breast cancer treatment.
• Mental health is also an important part of the journey, and she is thankful for the support she had around her with family and health care professionals.
• She would say to women who are hesitant about getting a mammogram: “This is breast cancer awareness month. Please definitely take the steps to get that mammogram as it could certainly save your life. It certainly did for me.”

Dr. Jamie Wagner, division chief, Breast Surgical Oncology, The University of Kansas Cancer Center

• There can be two different aspects as to why a second opinion can be important and beneficial to patients -- hearing the information the second time gives you an opportunity to absorb the information maybe to a different level, and you're not quite in shock at that second opinion consultation.
• Another reason is that we know when getting a second opinion at NCI designated cancer center for breast cancer, 43 percent of patients will have a change in their diagnosis or treatment.
• We have come so far in breast cancer treatment in making survivors, but it really relies on getting the right diagnosis and therefore putting the right treatment plan together and that second opinion can sometimes offer that change.
• As a result of a lot of second opinions at NCI designated cancer centers, we take a look at the imaging that was performed outside of our organization. And maybe there's additional imaging that needs performed and we have seen that specifically at our organization and within our breast cancer program.
• About 70 to 80 percent of patients have at least one additional image taken as part of their consultation, and which might identify additional cancers or find that the cancer is larger. Both can modify a treatment the plan, but it's also embedded in pathology. Pathology is the foundation on how we build breast cancer treatment today.
• Fortunately, we've advanced a lot in our understanding of breast cancer and understand that breast cancer is a family with a lot of different personalities. So just like every family, each has different personality types, and they respond different to different environments. So, the different types of breast cancer need to have different treatment plans.
• We have come a long way with mammography from analog to digital and now where we are with 3D mammography (tomosynthesis). We absolutely advocate for all women undergoing 3D mammography. It helps with women who have dense breast tissue, but overall, it is a more comprehensive mammogram at the University of Kansas Cancer Center.

Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control, The University of Kansas Health System

• We have the COVID vaccines that continue to work.
• What we hear about in most of the news studies about waning immunity, or decreased immunity, or resistance to the vaccine, what they're really talking about are those specific antibodies.
• But we know even the original monovalent vaccines that were produced, those mRNA vaccines, continue to develop immune responses and antibodies even to those variants you haven't seen.
• We need to be continued to be on the lookout for those variants, but right now our vaccines continue to be effective in developing those immune responses.

Monday, October 10 at 8:00 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update, live from Arrowhead Stadium, where we will learn more about how local high school athletes are getting the same types of treatment as professional athletes.

ATTENTION MEDIA: Please note access is now with Microsoft Teams:

Join on your computer or mobile app

Click here to join the meeting

Meeting ID: 235 659 792 451
Passcode: 6CSfGE

Download Teams | Join on the web

Or call in (audio only)

+1 913-318-8863,566341546#   United States, Kansas City

TVU Grid link: UoK_Health_SDI

Restream links: Facebook.com/kuhospital

YouTube.com/kuhospital

Send advance questions to medicalnewsnetwork@kumc.edu.