AdventHealth Morning Briefing: Chadwick Boseman, cancer treatments and COVID-19

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  • Central Florida Division Corporate Communications

— Today’s AdventHealth Morning Briefing featured Dr. Mark Socinski, executive medical director at AdventHealth Cancer Institute and Dr. Robert Keenan, chief medical officer at Moffitt Cancer Center, discussing how the COVID-19 pandemic may impact future cancer treatments, and how the death of actor Chadwick Boseman has affected cancer screenings. The former “Black Panther” star died of colon cancer in late August at age 43 after a four-year battle with the disease.

The doctors emphasized the vital importance of cancer screenings despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Screening is a vital part of our health care maintenance, and we know that we can detect cancers earlier in a much more curable state if you maintain your screening programs,” said Socinski.

Highlights from the briefing include:

  • COVID-19 and its effect on cancer treatment: “It’s impact will be in how we interact with our patients,” said Keenan. “There’s an opportunity for patients to minimize the number of times they might need to come into a center … Patients can stay in their home environment and still get the follow-up that they desperately need.”
  • Telemedicine and virtual medicine are important in cancer care: “COVID-19 may force physicians to reconsider testing strategies and lessen the need for CT scans and other tests,” said Socinski, “which is a good thing.”
  • On cancer patients being more susceptible to contracting COVID-19: “Cancer patients oftentimes aren’t just dealing with cancer alone,” said Keenan. “In many cases they have other medical conditions that can put them at higher risk – things like heart disease, COPD, and some of the other benign medical conditions, and this can have somewhat of a cumulative effect.”

We encourage you to refer to the video on the Life at AdventHealth Central Florida page to pull direct quotes from Socinski and Keenan. The video may be downloaded by following this link: https://vimeo.com/451882692#t=161s

BONUS VIDEO: As a follow-up to last week’s AdventHealth Morning Briefing about flu season and COVID-19, Dr. Tim Hendrix, medical director of AdventHealth CentraCare, addresses the most common myths and misconceptions about COVID-19.