Dr. Cecelia Boardman

As a gynecologic oncologist, Dr. Cecelia Boardman is a little different than a general ob-gyn. She takes care of women with ovarian and uterine cancers, does surgeries and chemotherapy, and is also board-certified in hospice and palliative medicine. She describes herself as “soup-to-nuts for the gynecology oncology patient”.

She’s a leader in her field as the second female fellow at the Mayo Clinic and the first to do a robotic radical hysterectomy in Richmond. Last year, she had the highest volume of robotic procedures at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital’s Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute. And just this month she completed the 1,000^th case of her career.

“It’s really fun. I love what I do,” Boardman said. “But it’s also very gratifying to be able to help women through something that is so scary and difficult and make it less painful, make it easier, and make the journey a little less arduous.”

Since she was the first gynecologic oncologist in the area on the robotics platform, Boardman has seen a lot, and says the biggest change throughout the past decade is patient outcomes. Because of advancements in robotics and treatments, she said patients are living a lot longer and better with ovarian cancer than they did 20 years ago.

“We’ve seen at least a doubling of median overall survivorship, which means the length of life lived,” she said. “With the diagnosis of ovarian cancer since I started in practice, we have so many exciting new treatments that have changed the game, like biologic therapies and immunotherapies.”

When she’s not caring for her patients, she spends time cheering on her kids. Her daughter plays Division III soccer and her teenage son is also a competitive soccer player.

“I love making somebody better through surgery. I also love what we do in oncology care in terms of chemotherapy, the long-term follow-up, watching over patients and taking care of them. I get to do it all,” she said. “But most people think I’m just a soccer mom, which is great.”