A cancer diagnosis is among the most devastating news a family can hear. But with the opening of New Jersey’s first and only freestanding cancer hospital—just the 13th of its kind in the nation—there’s renewed hope for patients and their families.
RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Cancer Institute (the state’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center) will unveil the Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center with a ribbon cutting in New Brunswick on May 13.
“It was very apparent that cancer care in the state is very fragmented. A lot of people in New Jersey feel they have to travel if they get a cancer diagnosis,” Steven K. Libutti, MD, FACS, William N. Hait director, Rutgers Cancer Institute, and senior vice president, Oncology Services, RWJBarnabas Health, tells New Jersey Family.
Dr. Libutti says that 53,000 NJ residents are diagnosed each year with some type of cancer – but “cancer does not travel well,” and now residents of the Garden State will have access to multi-modality and multi-specialty treatments without crossing bridges or tunnels to get to NYC or Philadelphia.
“We want to wrap a blanket around each patient and family.”
Top-Notch Cancer Care
This state-of-the-art, 12-story, 520,000-square-foot facility has everything in one place: research labs, innovative technology, the availability of more clinical trials, patient-centered care and a pharmacy.
When you walk through the doors, “it doesn’t feel like a hospital – it feels like anything but,” he says.
Any type of cancer and its subspecialties can be treated here. There are 96 single bed inpatient rooms on three floors, with a separate floor for surgeries and procedures. For outpatient services, there are 88 infusion bays and 80 exam rooms for both kids and adults. Equipment includes four new linear accelerators for radiation, 9 robot-enabled operating rooms and 84 infusion chairs for chemotherapy.
Plus, for adults, comfort comes in the form of massage therapy, exercise therapy and a calming wellness garden.
“[I]t’s less like a visit to the doctor and more like an adventure.”
Pediatric Care
Kids will be seen in a colorful Jersey Shore-themed clinical space to make it more comfortable for them and anyone who travels with them during treatment (like siblings and other family members).
They’ll first walk down a “boardwalk” surrounded by images of the Jersey Shore, and the exam and infusion rooms are designed to look like cabanas. There’s even an arcade and toy store.
“While no one wants to go through that for sure, we are making it comfortable for patients and their families … so it’s less like a visit to the doctor and more like an adventure,” Dr. Libutti says.
“The goal, when we can’t cure a person of a disease … is that we at least turn the disease into a chronic disease they can live with long-term.”
The Future of Cancer Care
The Morris Cancer Center will have access to 200 open clinical trials at any given time, based on the science of RCINJ and trials found through cooperative groups, says Dr. Libutti. About 700 patients per year are treated through therapeutic intervention.
A large focus will be on cancer immunotherapy, which uses your own immune system to fight off the cancer cells. “This is one of the few institutions that has its own manufacturing facility to design and produce our own cancer immunotherapies … which already shows promise for solid tumors,” says Dr. Libutti.
There’s also special interest in cancer metabolism research, which studies how tumors coexist, grow and spread, he says.
Dr. Libutti says this will “tie together an integrated approach” using the expertise of providers and researchers from around the country and around the world who will want to work at a groundbreaking facility.
“The goal, when we can’t cure a person of a disease … is that we at least turn the disease into a chronic disease they can live with long-term,” says Dr. Libutti. “We want to wrap a blanket around each patient and family.”
The Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center is located in New Brunswick; self parking and valet will be available at 15 Division St. The ribbon cutting is on May 13, but oncologists and care teams from Rutgers Cancer Institute and RWJBarnabas Health won’t begin seeing patients until the summer. To schedule an appointment, call 844-CANCERNJ (844-226-2376). You can also send a message via MyChart.
The new cancer center is part of more than $1.5 billion that has been invested in oncology services across the Garden State, including the Melchiorre Cancer Center at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, which is scheduled to open in the fall; and the Specialty and Cancer Care Center on the Vogel Medical Campus in Tinton Falls, scheduled to open in late 2026.
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