When Army Veteran Steven Altrich went for his annual physical at the Fargo North Dakota VA in January 2023, his main concern was getting help to quit smoking . Shortly after that appointment, however, he underwent a recommended low-dose CT scan that revealed something far more serious\u2014a tumor on his kidney.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bit of a shock when they told me I had kidney cancer<\/a> and needed surgery in two weeks,\u201d recalled Altrich, who served as a truck driver during Operation Desert Storm. \u201cBut looking back, I\u2019m grateful it happened that way\u2014there was no time to worry.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n After VA surgeons removed Altrich\u2019s right kidney, along with a two-pound tumor, he learned that the cancer had not spread further. Altrich received a year of preventative immunotherapy under the guidance of a VA TeleOncologist based 1,400 miles\u00a0away in Durham, North Carolina. He also successfully quit smoking.<\/p>\n TeleOncology provides Veterans access to cancer care experts<\/a> no matter where they live and no matter what subspecialty of oncology care they need.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cMy nurse practitioner Tara was in constant contact with my TeleOncologist, and at Fargo VA, it was like having a family doctor,\u201d said Altrich. \u201cThey know your name, they say \u2018hi,\u2019 and they check up on you when they don\u2019t even have to.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Altrich\u2019s message to fellow Veterans is clear: \u201cDon\u2019t wait. When something serious comes up at VA, there\u2019s no waiting\u2014you become top priority. Take advantage of the health care we\u2019re granted and don\u2019t hesitate to speak to someone about how you\u2019re doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nTeleOncology provides access to care<\/h2>\n
![<\/a>U.S. Army Veteran Steven Altrich <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nTeleOncology provides Veterans access to cancer care experts<\/a> no matter where they live and no matter what subspecialty of oncology care they need.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cMy nurse practitioner Tara was in constant contact with my TeleOncologist, and at Fargo VA, it was like having a family doctor,\u201d said Altrich. \u201cThey know your name, they say \u2018hi,\u2019 and they check up on you when they don\u2019t even have to.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\nAltrich\u2019s message to fellow Veterans is clear: \u201cDon\u2019t wait. When something serious comes up at VA, there\u2019s no waiting\u2014you become top priority. Take advantage of the health care we\u2019re granted and don\u2019t hesitate to speak to someone about how you\u2019re doing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nIf you have questions about cancer screening<\/a>, quitting smoking or any other health concerns, contact your VA care team to learn more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Army Veteran Steven Altrich went for his annual physical at the Fargo North Dakota VA in January 2023, his main concern was getting help to quit smoking . Shortly after that appointment, however, he underwent a recommended low-dose CT scan that revealed something far more serious\u2014a tumor on his kidney.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cIt was a bit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":445340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204,5,674],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-445338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cancer","category-health","category-teleoncology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=445338"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445346,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445338\/revisions\/445346"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/445340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=445338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=445338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=445338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/StevenAltrich_r1-4.jpg\"){kind=link}