Boston isn’t the only city slated for a new cancer center. Far from it.
There’s little appetite to build general acute-care hospitals, especially as their financial outlook dims and more services move outpatient. So on its face, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s plan to build a new cancer hospital with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center seems peculiar.
Cancer centers, though, are having their own sort of renaissance. This year alone, at least six prominent cancer centers have announced plans to build new hospitals in cities like New York and Chicago. Experts say it’s largely driven by the advent of targeted precision therapies like CAR-T, which are still mostly delivered in hospitals.