Cooperman Barnabas tops off $225M cancer center

Posing with the final steel beam of Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center's freestanding cancer center are Dr. Michael Scoppetuolo, medical director of the center; Dr. Alison Grann, chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology, CBMC; Dr. Russell Langan, director of surgical oncology, RWJBarnabas Health; Dr. M. Michele Blackwood, director of breast surgery, RWJBarnabas Health, head of breast surgery, CBMC, and director of women’s oncologic health; Susan Garawitz, vice president of oncology, CBMC; and Richard Davis, president and CEO of CBMC. - COOPERMAN BARNABAS MEDICAL CENTER

Dawn Furnas//September 14, 2023//

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Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center broke ground on its $225 million freestanding cancer center in September 2022. On Sept. 13 of this year it celebrated another milestone: the raising of the structure’s final steel beam.

Scheduled for completion in 2025, the five-story, 137,000-square-foot outpatient facility on CBMC’s Livingston campus will serve as the northern hub for the oncology services offered by RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.

“With world-class amenities and a team that includes some of the top cancer specialists in the nation, the new Cancer Center will be a premier destination for patient-centered and research-driven cancer care in this region and beyond,” CBMC President and CEO Richard Davis said in a statement.

Bruce Schonbraun, chair of the CBMC board of trustees, said the cancer center represents one of the most significant events in the community. Schonbraun also thanked the hospital’s donors and others who helped make the facility a reality.

In September 2021, Leon and Toby Cooperman donated $100 million to the medical center, which was the largest donation ever given to any hospital in New Jersey. What previously had been known as Saint Barnabas Medical Center was later renamed Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center.

Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center's new cancer center on the hospital's Livingston campus — A rendering of Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center’s new cancer center on the hospital’s Livingston campus. – COOPERMAN BARNABAS MEDICAL CENTER

Services at the new center will include medical, surgical and radiation oncology, in addition to amenities such as a wig and prosthetic studio, yoga classes, music therapy, psychosocial support services, private infusion rooms, and short-term and extended-stay facilities.

The medical center’s partnership with Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey – which is the state’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center – provides patients with treatment options such as clinical trials, CAR T-cell therapy, immunotherapy and precision medicine.

Dr. Steven Libutti, director of the Rutgers institute and senior vice president, Oncology Services, at RWJBarnabas Health, said the new facility expands upon the two health care providers’ “overall major investment” in oncology services, including the $750 million Jack and Sheryl Morris Cancer Center, the state’s first freestanding cancer hospital in New Brunswick.

Dr. Michael Scoppetuolo, medical director of the cancer center at CBMC, added, “This is what the future of cancer care looks like in the Garden State and beyond. I’m honored to be a part of it.”