Report examines local cancer trends

hospital-safe-1189025
hospital-safe-1189025

Corewell Health South’s 2022 cancer care report shows the most common cancers treated at the hospital in St. Joseph last year were breast, lung, prostate, colorectal, and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Radiation oncologist Dr. Ben Gielda with Corewell tells us that matches the national picture. He says there doesn’t seem to be any areas of southwest Michigan more at risk than others.

“But we do certainly have pockets in our service area that have higher rates overall than others, and we know that there are certain areas where there are some behaviors that predispose people to higher risk for certain cancers,” Gielda said.

For example, areas of Berrien and Cass counties where the smoking rate is higher would have higher lung cancer rates. While Corewell treats the cancers outlined in its report, Gielda says thanks to partnerships, when a patient needs some additional service not available locally, they can still be served.

“Where, if a patient needs specialized forms of treatment that we just don’t have the ability to provide, we can ensure that people get to where they need to be to receive the care that they need and deserve.”

Gielda says a lot of deaths could be prevented if people were screened for things like lung and colon cancer earlier. For prevention, he recommends having an active lifestyle, avoiding many processed foods, not smoking, and getting screened frequently. Corewell Health South says in 2021, it treated 1,193 total cancer cases. 54% of the patients were female and 45% male. 72% were age 60 or older, 26% were between 30 and 59, and less than 2% were under the age of 30. You can read the full report at SpectrumHealthLakeland.org/Cancer.