The University of Kansas Health System is treating a total of 65 COVID patients today, 58 yesterday. Other significant numbers:
- 45 with the active virus today, 36 yesterday
- 5 in ICU, 5 yesterday
- 0 on a ventilator, 2 yesterday
Key points from today’s guests:
“Morning Rounds” – Kirstie Alley’s Colon Cancer-Related Death
Dr. Raed Al-Rajabi, hematologist, medical oncologist, The University of Kansas Health System
- Colorectal cancer is the second deadliest cancer in the U.S., but it can be difficult to diagnose because early on, colon cancers are mostly asymptomatic, and patients have limited signs that it's even there. That's why screening is so important to catch colon cancer very early.
- Studies have shown that colonoscopies are very effective in catching precancerous polyps and early stage cancers.
- Home tests can be effective to a point. There are newer technologies now actually looking at cancer DNA in the stool, which are very sensitive to picking up colon cancer, but they are not really good at picking up polyps yet.
- Eventually, if those home tests are positive, you still would need a colonoscopy to confirm your diagnosis. The gold standard is a colonoscopy.
- Pay attention to your bowel habits. If something is changing and it is unrelated to diet, make sure you get it checked early.
Proton Therapy Advantages
Alex Teeters, proton therapy patient
- Alex was diagnosed in March 2021 with slow growing tumors in his central nervous system. Technically not diagnosed as cancer, it is being treated as cancer.
- He was treated with new proton beam therapy for five days a week for six straight weeks.
- Traditional radiation poses risks to his heart and lungs while the proton beam therapy avoids those risks.
- He is now able to walk without assistance and can be on his own and back to work as normal.
Dr. Ronny Rotondo, medical director, proton therapy, The University of Kansas Health System
- Proton beam therapy uses protons, which can be more easily controlled to be more precise to the areas that need the radiation specifically delivered. This is important to avoid unnecessary radiation damage to other areas of the body.
- Even if you have a benign tumor, as these grow, they can apply pressure and compression and caused significant neurological compromise. It's very important to treat these effectively and aggressively with surgery to decompress the compression that he was experiencing on his spinal cord and the nerve roots and then to follow that up with proton therapy.
- Without the Proton Center here in Kansas City, patients would have had to travel hundreds of miles to essentially go to another state -- you'd have to travel a long distance, you'd have to relocate for six eight weeks away from your support network, away from your family.
- Having this technology this close to home is really a game changer, because for many patients and families that travel is just not feasible.
- Proton therapy can treat a wide range of tumors including brain and spine tumors, head and neck cancers, gastrointestinal tumors, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, and prostate cancer.
COVID Headlines
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, director of infection control and prevention, The University of Kansas Health System
- On news reports about China lifting COVID restrictions, we need to keep an eye on it and really hope that the Chinese people stay safe and stay well.
- From current understandings about the vaccines in China, they are not as reliable and don't provide as good of an immune response as the ones that we have here, so that is something else to monitor.
- A new study found that maternal flu vaccinations help prevent flu-related hospitalizations of infants.
- This is one more piece of data to support the fact that if you are pregnant, please get those vaccines as part of prenatal care -- it doesn't only protect you but does protect the baby once the baby is born.
- Those vaccines have been shown to be protective of not only mom, but babies in those first few months of life because of that active transfer of those antibodies, which is so vitally important.
Friday, December 9 at 8:00 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. Older people have been known to be at higher risk of death from COVID, but now they make up an even larger share than before. We’ll discuss why.
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