What was announced
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Beth Israel Lahey Health began construction Monday on a new $1.68 billion hospital in Boston devoted to cancer care, according to The Boston Globe. The project is described as the only medical center of its kind in New England.
The 300-bed, 450,000-square-foot facility is scheduled to open in 2031 for patients who need inpatient care during treatment. It will sit on the former Joslin Diabetes Center site on Brookline Avenue in the Longwood area. Just as Dana-Farber has long shared a bridge over Binney Street with Brigham and Women's Hospital, the new building will have its own bridge, connecting to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu called the groundbreaking "a significant moment in history." Dr. Benjamin Ebert, Dana-Farber's chief executive, said that seeing construction begin was motivating.
A split with the Brigham
The hospital is a physical sign of Dana-Farber's growing partnership with Beth Israel Lahey Health, the state's second-largest health system and a competitor to Mass General Brigham. In 2023, Dana-Farber announced it would leave its decades-long partnership with the Brigham and start a new one with Beth Israel Lahey. The Globe reported that one reason was MGB's hesitance to help fund a facility in which Dana-Farber would control more of the beds.
Ebert said the transition is highly complex and will unfold over several years. Dana-Farber and MGB will not formally separate until 2028. Between then and the new hospital's opening, hospitalized Dana-Farber patients will be housed at Beth Israel Deaconess, with patients moved in stages from the Brigham.
The first outpatient shift began Monday, as Dana-Farber's breast oncology services started moving toward Beth Israel. Dana-Farber will provide outpatient care while breast surgeries take place at Beth Israel. Patients are not required to receive care there, and Dana-Farber told patients in a letter that those who prefer to keep seeing Brigham specialists will be supported. "In all cases, patients have the agency to choose who takes care of them," Ebert said.
A competing push from Mass General Brigham
Dana-Farber and Beth Israel are not the only ones investing heavily. According to the Globe, MGB is spending $400 million on a rival cancer institute, with new construction and renovations at multiple sites. The Herb Chambers Tower on the Massachusetts General Hospital campus is slated to open in September 2027 with 228 inpatient beds.
MGB's institute opened a Brigham-based breast clinic in May and expects to offer services across eight cancer specialties by November, the system said in a statement. It will also open a new outpatient practice next month in the Hale Building for Transformative Medicine. Treatment will be available beyond the flagship hospitals, including at Newton-Wellesley, Cooley Dickinson and Brigham and Women's Faulkner hospitals.
The two sides are pitching different approaches. MGB says it will serve patients holistically by integrating specialists across its system, while Dana-Farber argues cancer care is complex enough to merit its own tailored hospital. The competition is likely to extend to recruiting, as Dana-Farber plans to hire about 2,400 workers over four years, including 400 nurses during the transition and 200 more for intensive care and observation units at opening.
Inside the planned hospital
Anne Gross, Dana-Farber's chief nursing officer, said leaders spent more than a year designing patient rooms, building simulated rooms at 10 Brookline Place and consulting design experts, staff and patients. Features range from bathroom layouts to adjustable lighting, and each room will have a refrigerator so patients can keep favorite foods on hand. "Nutrition is important when anybody is sick," Gross said.
The 10-floor hospital will have 30 intensive care beds and a 16-bed observation suite, allowing patients to finish treatment after outpatient clinics close without being admitted. Four floors will have specialized air protection to reduce infection risk for severely immunocompromised patients. Staff will train in the mock-up rooms ahead of the move.
