Preventative cancer screening and genetic testing at LMH Health’s cancer center changed the lives of several members of one local family.

Last year, Cindy Fritzel visited LMH Health for a routine 3D mammogram, and a cancerous tumor was identified. Because Fritzel’s father was also battling cancer at the time, her oncologist, Dr. Sherri Soule, encouraged her to take part in genetic testing. The results of the test would be used to determine the best treatment for her cancer.

The test came back positive for BRCA-2, a gene that increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancers, as well as recurrence of cancer over a lifetime. Because of this, Fritzel’s cancer care team recommended a double mastectomy, rather than a lumpectomy or radiation treatment.

Fritzel’s positive BRCA-2 result also led her parents, her daughters and her brother to participate in genetic testing. Her father, her brother and two daughters were positive for the gene.

Preventive breast cancer testing is normally recommended for women starting at age 40. But Fritzel’s daughters started it soon after learning they had the gene, and one of them discovered she had breast cancer at age 34. She underwent a double mastectomy exactly two months after her mother did.

“It was the genetic testing that changed everything,” Fritzel said. “It saved lives in my immediate family.”

Fritzel said it didn’t take long for her team to begin planning her treatment after the tests were done. She said it took less than a week for her to meet with every provider she needed to complete her treatment, from her oncologist to her breast surgeon.

“Having cancer is such a whirlwind, but my appointments were set up so quickly and I didn’t have to worry where I’d go or what I’d do,” Fritzel said. “The process at LMH Health was convenient and the physicians are an intimate group. That made everything easier.”

Soule said LMH Health’s cancer center takes a “group approach” to oncology, in which all providers meet weekly to discuss cancer cases and patients and ensure that everyone agrees on the treatment plans.

“This coordinated approach is the absolute best way to minimize invasiveness and number of procedures,” Soule said.

Fritzel said she had seen how cancer care worked at a larger hospital in the Kansas City area while accompanying her father for treatments, but she found her own experience to be much more personal and comfortable.

“We went to many appointments in Kansas City where there are 50 people in the waiting room,” Fritzel said. “The intimacy at LMH Health was amazing compared to larger hospitals.”

Soule said that cancer patients at LMH Health have access to “everything … that they offer in Kansas City, but with more personalized care.” That includes clinical trials, genetic research, support programs, survivorship resources and a cancer prevention program. The center’s specialists have experience treating breast, prostate, colon, bladder and kidney cancers, as well as lymphoma, leukemia and other blood diseases. And last year, LMH Health received accreditation from the Commission on Cancer.

“We get to know the patients and their families better, and we get things done more efficiently,” Soule said.

• Courtney Bernard is a development coordinator for LMH Health Foundation.