Lakeland Currents: Sanford Bemidji Cancer Center

Season 10, Episode 12

Host Bethany Wesley welcomes two key members of the Sanford Bemidji Cancer Center team: Dr. John Bollinger, a radiation oncologist, and Dr. Jasmine Kamboj, a medical oncologist and hematologist.

The American Cancer Society reports that more than a million people in the United States get cancer each year. Locally, 419 new cancer patients were diagnosed and treated at Sanford Bemidji Medical Center in 2015, with more than 45 percent of such patients coming from outside Beltrami County. Indeed, the Sanford Bemidji Cancer Center treats about 400 cancer patients a year, with breast cancer being the most common, and lung cancer the second most common. The Sanford Bemidji Medical Center now is poised to break ground this year on its new 20,000-square-foot Sanford Joe Lueken Cancer Center, a new facility planned to bring all of Sanford Bemidji’s cancer services together, providing not only more convenience for its patients, but also increased efficiencies for medical personnel. The construction of the new facility continues a 15-year expansion of cancer care services at the Bemidji hospital.