The 300-bed, 450,000-square-foot hospital is expected to open in 2031 for patients who need inpatient care during treatment. It will be located at the site of the former Joslin Diabetes Center on Brookline Avenue.
The new hospital is a physical manifestation of Dana-Farber’s burgeoning collaboration with Beth Israel Lahey Health, the state’s second-largest health system and a competitor to General Brigham Mass, the largest hospital network in the state. In 2023, Dana-Farber announced it was ending its decades-long partnership with the Brighams and starting a new one with Beth Israel Lahey, in part because MGB was reluctant to help finance a new facility in which Dana-Farber would control more beds. Beth Israel, however, was a game.
For years, Dana-Farber has shared a bridge with the Brigham over Binney Street so patients and clinicians can easily move between the two care centers. Now the new cancer hospital will have its own bridge, connected to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Dana-Farber’s cancer-specific center will join others announced by major medical players, including Mount Sinai’s in New York and MD Anderson in Houston.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said Monday’s groundbreaking marked “an important moment in history.”
“This is a truly special day, not only because a major institution is making significant investments in the city and its mission, but also because Boston, as a historic center of mission-driven work and the common good, is about to see this taken to the next level,” Wu said.
Dana-Farber’s transition from its relationship with Brigham to its partnership with Beth Israel is very complex, Ebert said, and will take place over several years. Dana-Farber and MGB will not officially separate until 2028.
In the years between that date and the cancer hospital’s opening, Dana-Farber will house its inpatient cancer patients at Beth Israel Deaconess, before eventually transferring them to the new hospital, Ebert said. Patients will be transferred in stages from the Brigham to BI.
On the outpatient side, patients who were previously treated at Beth Israel Deaconess and their doctors will be transferred to Dana-Farber’s outpatient clinics.
The first such transition began Monday, with the move of breast oncology services from Dana-Farber to Beth Israel. Dr. Elizabeth Mittendorf, who previously worked at Brigham, joined Beth Israel Deaconess in 2025 to lead the hospital’s new division of breast surgery. At least two of the division’s nine other surgeons previously worked at Brigham, according to reporting by U.S. News & World Report.
Dana-Farber and Beth Israel Deaconess will each host different parts of the breast oncology treatment process, with Dana-Farber providing outpatient care, while breast surgeries will take place at Beth Israel.
“Together, we are building something that has the potential to transform cancer care in our region while creating new opportunities to advance research and expand access to innovative therapies,” Dr. Kevin Tabb, chief executive officer of Beth Israel, said in a statement.
Dana-Farber patients are not required to receive their care at Deaconess Beth Israel. In a letter to patients, Dana-Farber said patients who prefer to continue seeing their surgeon, radiation oncologist or specialists at Brigham will be supported in doing so.
“If a patient says, ‘I want to have surgery in New York, or at General Mass, or in Paris, we work with those doctors. That happens all the time with our patients,’ Ebert said. “In all cases, patients have the opportunity to choose who takes care of them. »
Dana-Farber will hire approximately 2,400 workers for the new hospital over the next four years, including 400 nurses during the transition period and another 200 nurses to staff the intensive care and observation units when the hospital opens.
This will likely result in increased competition with MGB for recruiting oncologists and other cancer clinicians. Dana-Farber and MGB have previously argued over physician assistants serving the current partnership, although the organizations ultimately said they would work better together.
Dana-Farber and Beth Israel are not the only ones investing heavily in the fight against cancer. MGB is investing $400 million to create a competing cancer institute, which will include new construction and renovations at multiple sites. Herb Chambers Tower, a cancer care center located on the campus of Massachusetts General Hospital, is expected to open in September 2027 and include 228 inpatient beds.
Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute launched its Brigham-based breast clinic in May and will offer services in eight cancer specialties, including gastrointestinal and thoracic oncology, among others, by November, MGB said in a statement.
MGB’s Cancer Institute will also open a new outpatient office next month in the Hale Building for Transformative Medicine, which will “create a new home for patient-oriented clinical research at the Brigham.”
The Cancer Institute brings together MGB cancer specialists as one team, but treatment is available at MGB locations beyond its two flagship hospitals, including Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Cooley Dickinson Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital.
The two medical giants marketed their cancer centers and touted their distinct approaches. MGB says its patients will be served in a holistic manner that integrates different specialists across the system. Meanwhile, Dana-Farber argues that cancer care is so complex that it deserves its own custom hospital.
Anne Gross, senior vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at Dana-Farber, said she and other executives spent more than a year designing the rooms where patients and their families would stay. They built simulated hospital rooms at the institute’s 10 Brookline Place and brought in health care design experts, Dana-Farber staff and patients to weigh in on each feature, from the structure of the bathrooms to the adjustable lighting. Rooms will include refrigerators so patients can access their favorite foods at any time.
“Nutrition is important when someone is sick,” Gross said. “But, especially in cancer patients, nutrition becomes extremely important.”
The new hospital will include 30 intensive care unit beds and a 16-bed observation room, which will allow patients to complete their treatment after their outpatient clinic closes for the day without needing to be admitted to the hospital.
During a recent tour of the simulated rooms, the standard and intensive care mockups looked similar, with a photo of the Boston skyline, although the intensive care rooms were slightly larger to allow for more equipment. Four floors of the 10-story hospital will include specialized air protection to limit the risk of infection for severely immunocompromised patients.
Dana-Farber nurses, pharmacists and other clinical staff will train in the simulated rooms to provide a smooth transition to the hospital.
Gross said Dana-Farber has always had an “incredible” group of experts for every type of cancer.
“We’ve had this in our outpatient departments for many years. But now, having that inpatient and being able to walk with our patients and their loved ones through the experience,” Gross said. “It’s pretty exciting for Boston, and it’s pretty exciting for the region.”
Marin Wolf can be contacted at
Gn Health
