To elaborate a bit further, Rohag.

Our local VAMC had only one oncologist, here on a temporary contract. Initially, he ordered some genetic testing that led to him selecting immunotherapy as the treatment modality. He used the same medication used on Pres. Jimmy Carter. - Keytruda. "Immunotherapy" is less harsh than traditional chemotherapy. It doesn't directly seek to kill rapid metabolizing cells as "chemo" does. I would liken it to a vaccine. It helps the patients own immune system be better able to identify and attack cancer cells. There's no loss of hair. It's safer for someone like my s.o. who got diagnosed late and is very frail.

Our VAMC lost the one oncologist and failed to find a replacement. So all veterans here needing cancer treatment were "vouchered" off to get their treatment elsewhere. A local university hospital now treats my s.o. This medical center does participate in a national genetic screening program that matches patients with "targeted therapies." Tumor cell samples are sent off to a specialized lab in Boston set up to do genetic testing. I guess not every lab does this sort of very cutting edge research-based testing. So I'm pretty confident my s.o. is getting the best treatment option tailored to his specific tumor genetics.

It seems that cancer treatment research is making impressive strides. Your article cites how the VA healthcare system is trying to get veterans with cancer the best of what's becoming newly available. Though the VA healthcare system has had its challenges, I think it also has its strengths. I believe in it and support it.

The political right in this country hates the VA healthcare system. They call it "socialized medicine" which is absolutely correct. A few years ago they started the "choice" program to allow veterans to be sent elsewhere in their communities for services inadequately provided by the local VAMC. Sounds like a good thing. But when the right pushes a program to help people, you have to look carefully at what their real aim is. They favor anything that will deflect vets away from the VA medical centers and towards other providers of healthcare. So my s.o. now gets treated at a non-VA hospital, with the VA paying for that treatment. Initially, the government was paying that bill. Trump's administration has now told the VA that it must cover all expenses of the "choice" program. Something fishy is going on here. Seems to me that it would be cheaper for the VAMC to hire another oncologist - no matter what salary it had to offer - than to pay for all these vets to get cancer treatment elsewhere. I don't get why they can't hire another oncologist and have their own oncology dept up and running.

One can make a respectable argument for doing away with government-run hospitals for veterans. One can argue that veterans are being put into a kind of healthcare ghetto, segregated in their healthcare from the rest of the healthcare consuming public. But I'm not too trusting that the motives of people on the right who make this argument are all that respectable. VA medical centers actually do a lot of things very well. Our local VAMC has improved tremendously over the past decade. My s.o. has gotten lots of excellent care there. I like that it's one-stop shopping. He hasn't needed to run all over town to see specialists scattered all over the map. I think it's an interesting model of how to organize healthcare that can teach us something. I'ld like to see the VA healthcare system survive. But there is a political element in this country that wants it to fail.