GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – ‘Buddy Check’ is a reminder to you, your friends, and your family to be checked for cancer on a regular basis.

We met with Dr. Jonathan Frandsen, a Radiation Oncologist at Community Hospital in Grand Junction who sees the importance of early cancer detection firsthand,

“If you catch it early it’s much more curable, typically the treatments are much less invasive and have lesser long-term side effects,” says Dr. Frandsen.

Dr. Frandsen says the pandemic has largely reduced the number of patients coming in to get screened, with numbers down by 15 to 20 percent in 2020,

“And so unfortunately, over the last several months it seems like we’ve seen people who would have previously been screened but weren’t screened because of COVID, didn’t come in to get cancer screenings because they were afraid to come in or they just forgot after they missed their first appointment and unfortunately that meant that we didn’t catch the cancer early and it came at a more advanced stage,” continues Dr. Frandsen.

Radiation Oncology is one of three primary specialties involved in treating cancer, it can be a treatment in combination with surgery or chemotherapy,

“We’re able to target tumors in a patient’s body with sub-millimeter accuracy; so if we want to treat something in the brain or the lung, we can track exactly how that tumor is moving in space and really direct the radiation right at it,” explains Dr. Frandsen.

The recommended age for many cancer screenings is 45.

Dr. Frandsen assures anyone considering getting screened or treated that Community Hospital will treat you as one of their own,

“The thing that I love about the cancer care at Community Hospital is we really have a team, kind of family-approach to cancer care; all of the providers that are caring for a specific patient, we meet regularly, we talk on the phone regularly, we’re all on the same page, and I feel like we really deliver a nice personal touch for patients. And beyond that, I believe we truly offer world-class care; all the doctors are very well trained, they’re very knowledgeable, we offer all the latest clinical trials, and we’re really proud of the product that we offer patients here,” continues Dr. Frandsen.

This is your reminder to check in with your friends and family about their last cancer screening. community hospital strives to make screenings and treatment as accessible as possible, to ensure our community stays safe and healthy.