6 significant cancer hospitals on the horizon

As cancer care innovation and advancement continues to accelerate, health systems are expanding cancer services to meet patient needs and expectations. 

Here are four systems that recently announced plans to invest millions to build cancer hospitals, and two systems that recently opened cancer care facilities:

• Indianapolis-based Indiana University Health is expected to begin construction on a cancer center in 2026 as part of a larger $214 million community growth project. The center will be located on the system’s Arnett Hospital campus in Lafayette, Ind.
• Chicago-based Northwestern Memorial Hospital is seeking state approval to build a new tower with the aim of consolidating oncology services, which are currently housed in five buildings across the hospital’s downtown Chicago campus.

  The new facility would include an oncology triage center, operating rooms, infusion and diagnostic imaging services.

• Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians are proceeding with plans to build a $1.68 billion cancer hospital. The organizations have completed the necessary multi-agency, state and city approval process and are expected to begin construction on the facility in 2026.

  Dana-Farber’s existing oncology partnership with Brigham and Women’s Hospital is set to end in 2028. The new hospital is expected to open in 2031.

• Mayo Clinic Jacksonville (Fla.) opened a $320 million cancer center in June, which will house the first carbon ion therapy program in the U.S. The system plans to add proton therapy in 2027 and carbon ion therapy in 2028.

• In May, West Orange, N.J.-based RWJBarnabas Health and New Brunswick, N.J.-based Rutgers Cancer Institute opened the Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center — the first freestanding cancer hospital in New Jersey.

  Steven Libutti, MD, senior vice president of oncology services for RWJBarnabas Health and director of the Rutgers Cancer Institute, told Becker’s the center will be a new “center of gravity” for both cancer care and research in the state.

• Through a $150 million gift from the Kinder Foundation, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Texas Children’s Hospital, both based in Houston, have committed to building the largest pediatric cancer center in the U.S.

  Once built, the facility will offer inpatient and ambulatory care alongside research labs dedicated to drug discovery and clinical trials. The new center will be connected via a skybridge to Texas Children’s Hospital.

  Though the organizations have different academic homes, Richard Gorlick, MD, told Becker’s the partnership was “synergistic.”

  “Through the joint venture, we can create efficiencies by not having duplication, by having a large breadth of patients when conducting clinical trials and having additional expertise in different clinical areas,” he said. 

  Texas Children’s and MD Anderson will begin collaborating on clinical operations and patient care in early 2026.