The University of Kansas Health System is treating a total of 56 COVID patients today, 58 yesterday. Other significant numbers:
- 35 with the active virus today, 38 yesterday
- 4 in ICU, 7 yesterday
- 1 on a ventilator, 2 yesterday
Key points from today’s guests:
Dr. Steve Stites, chief medical officer, The University of Kansas Health System
- It has been six months since The University of Kansas Cancer Center achieved National Cancer Institute (NCI) comprehensive cancer care status -- one of only 53 in the country.
- This comprehensive cancer center designation put us in the same league as other top cancer centers around the country.
- This achievement was nearly 20 years in the making, but we are continuing to move forward with new resources to improve our cancer center further.
Dr. Roy Jensen, vice chancellor and director, The University of Kansas Cancer Center
- Studies are showing up to 25 percent of patients treated at a comprehensive cancer center have better outcomes. Approximately 6500 new patients are treated each year at the Cancer Center and about 50,000 unique patient visits.
- Have had a number of patients who say they would not be here today if we were not an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center.
- Having so many resources in the same space allows for greater collaboration and creativity.
- We have had 5 KU-created cancer drugs that we’ve been able to discuss, including one of the first bladder cancer drugs.
- On the research side, approximately $2.5-3 billion has been generated in economic activity.
Dr. Ronald Chen, chair, radiation oncology, The University of Kansas Cancer Center
- I think this collaboration between cancer research, community members and patient advocates is so important because a lot of times when we do research, whether it's on the bench in the laboratory or clinical trials, we need the patient's voice to tell us what is important so that we can focus our research to do something that really will be impactful to the patients because ultimately that's the goal for cancer.
- For patients who are treated at an NCI-designated cancer center, they have more options for clinical trials.
- Research costs so much because of the amount of time and effort to create new and effective drugs, plus the highly specialized equipment needed. We try to keep those research costs from reaching the patient.
- For patients who have a diagnosis of cancer, this is really a great place to go, and you can stay at home and get the latest treatment and latest clinical trials in Kansas. This is a great service to our community.
Cheryl Jernigan, PIVOT member and cancer survivor
- PIVOT was launched in 2016 and we have grown since then to be over 150 members.
- These are survivors and co-survivors of cancer, who can contribute their wisdom and insight gained only from living with cancer 24/7 into the research decision making process.
- Being at a comprehensive cancer center means patients have access to the best research and treatment.
- As a cancer survivor, happy to see more research is going to help future survivors.
Dr. Dana Hawkinson, director of infection control and prevention, The University of Kansas Health System
- Overall, there are more significant numbers of hospitalizations for flu than we’ve seen previously, but we have been seeing some decreases lately.
- The causes of COVID hospitalizations mainly are because people are not up to date on boosters, and they are not getting tested early to get on Paxlovid.
- We know we have good publications, especially in the New England Journal of Medicine, showing that people who have been vaccinated or vaccinated and infected do create broad neutralizing antibodies to variants that we have identified now, and more than likely, variants that we haven't even identified at this point.
Thursday, Dec. 15 at 8:00 a.m. is the next Morning Medical Update. About 1 percent of women under 40 experience early menopause. But did you know that for some women, early menopause can lead to heart complications? We’ll meet a woman who's gone through it and her cardiologist who explains the heart connection and the top signs that signal trouble ahead.
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