Johns Hopkins Cancer Center Expands Cancer Care and Research Facility at Sibley Memorial Hospital

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Cancer experts from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center are now embedded in a newly expanded facility within Johns Hopkins Medicine-owned Sibley Memorial Hospital in northwest Washington, D.C.

Sibley recently opened the 30,000-square-foot medical oncology facility part of its new 475,000-square-foot patient tower including 34 private rooms and three shared spaces for patients receiving outpatient treatment, such as chemotherapy or other infusions. With 20 exam and consultation rooms, the Kimmel Cancer Center at Sibley has doubled its capacity for delivering cancer treatments. Adjacent to the medical oncology facility is a 30,000-square-foot radiation therapy treatment center for adults and children with cancer. The close proximity of the two facilities supports the delivery of multidisciplinary cancer diagnosis and treatment planning, enhanced research opportunities, and access to leading-edge clinical trials, according to Johns Hopkins officials.

“The Kimmel Cancer Center is not only present in the name of these facilities, but in its people, practices and expertise,” says William Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. Some 40 Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine medical, surgical and radiation oncology faculty members and members of the Kimmel Cancer Center now practice at the Johns Hopkins-owned Sibley Memorial and Suburban hospitals. Johns Hopkins officials say they plan to hire additional experts as the programs expand.

Kimmel Cancer Center programs in the Washington, D.C., region span subspecialty expertise for adults with all types of cancer and comprehensive radiation therapy services for adults and children with cancer. Sibley’s new facility for proton therapy, a highly precise form of radiation treatment that uses that uses proton beams and has been shown to enhance treatment effectiveness and outcomes in certain types of cancer, is expected to open in 2019.

“Cancer treatment and research is evolving quickly. We are developing new technologies and making discoveries about the biology of cancer that are guiding diagnosis and treatment, and we’re bringing this expertise to the Washington, D.C. region,” says Theodore DeWeese, M.D., the Sidney Kimmel Professor of Radiation Oncology and director of the Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences at Johns Hopkins.

The Kimmel Cancer Center’s radiation therapy programs at Sibley and Suburban include videoconferencing systems that allow real-time connectivity with tumor type-specific clinical teams at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.

In addition to clinical care and research, the Kimmel Cancer Center at Sibley and the Kimmel Cancer Center radiation oncology program at Suburban provide the full range of patient support services, including social workers, patient navigators and health care professionals who provide support services, such as counseling, psychosocial support and educational needs, for patients, families and caregivers.

“We are proud to offer our patients in the Washington metropolitan region access to world-class cancer care from world-renowned Johns Hopkins experts,” says Richard “Chip” Davis, Ph.D., president and CEO of Sibley.” Patients facing a diagnosis of cancer should never have to doubt that they are receiving anything but the best cancer care available.”

“This entire strategy is designed to expand access to Johns Hopkins cancer specialists across suburban Maryland and the District of Columbia at Sibley Memorial Hospital or Suburban Hospital,” says Jacky Schultz, president of Suburban Hospital, which is located in Bethesda, Maryland. “Taking this approach, patients in the Washington metropolitan region can receive the best cancer care available at locations that are convenient and close.”

Earlier this year, through a partnership with Sibley, Children’s National Health System, and The Johns Hopkins University, a first-of-its-kind pediatric radiation oncology program in the Washington, D.C. region was opened at Sibley. The program is designed specifically for pediatric oncology experts at Johns Hopkins and Children’s National to collaborate on clinical care and research that are solely focused on providing the most advanced care for pediatric cancer patients and their families. Additionally, this collaboration of pediatric oncology experts will lead the development of pediatric-focused proton therapy services, which will be delivered in the dedicated pediatric facilities being constructed as part of the Johns Hopkins proton therapy center at Sibley.

The Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore, Maryland, opened in 1973 and was among the first of the current 45 cancer centers designated as “comprehensive” by the National Cancer Institute. Additional Kimmel Cancer Center facilities are located at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore and at the Johns Hopkins Health Care and Surgery Center at Green Spring Station in Lutherville, Maryland. Experts at the Kimmel Cancer Center see more than 11,000 new patients annually across all its facilities.