On May 13, West Orange, N.J.-based RWJBarnabas Health and New Brunswick, N.J.-based Rutgers Cancer Institute opened the Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center — the first freestanding cancer hospital in New Jersey.
Located in New Brunswick, the center is one of only 13 freestanding cancer hospitals in the U.S., according to a news release from RWJBarnabas Health.
Steven Libutti, MD, is the senior vice president of oncology services for RWJBarnabas Health and director of the Rutgers Cancer Institute. He spoke to Becker’s about what the state’s first freestanding cancer center represents for the future of cancer research and care in New Jersey.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: What inspired RWJBarnabas Health to establish the Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center?
Dr. Steven Libutti: I came to Rutgers Cancer Institute and RWJBarnabas Health just over eight years ago. When I arrived, it was clear to me that cancer care in New Jersey was very fragmented, which is not uncommon. Cancer is also a major problem in the state — as we’re seventh in cancer incidence in the U.S., with close to 55,000 new cancer diagnoses each year.
It became apparent to me that many patients had the sense that if they wanted exceptional cancer care, they had to travel out of state, north into [New York City] or south into Philadelphia, but cancer doesn’t travel well.
Having to coordinate travel for multiple weekly chemotherapy infusions and radiation treatments across bridges and tunnels adds additional complications to an already complicated effort to treat their cancer.
As a joint effort, Rutgers Cancer Institute and RWJBarnabas Health aligned to impose some structure and order to cancer care in New Jersey that would allow patients to seek exceptional cancer care right here in the state, as well as provide a resource for folks outside of New Jersey to travel to get the level of care and exceptional research, and access to cutting-edge clinical trials that one expects at a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.
What we were missing, in my opinion, was a patient-centered freestanding cancer hospital. We want to not only provide exceptional cancer treatment, but exceptional cancer care. The Jack and Sheryl Morris Cancer Center is our way of wrapping a blanket around the patient and offloading some of the burden associated with a cancer diagnosis.
Q: How will this patient-centered, integrated model enhance patient outcomes?
SL: The Jack and Sheryl Morris Cancer Center is a part of a broader strategy that we have to sort of centralize cancer care within New Jersey. We’re linked by a skybridge to the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, a major academic medical center, so we can care for the other problems a patient may have. While the center is focused on cancer, it’s one part of a broader care strategy.
As I mentioned, cancer doesn’t travel well. We didn’t even want all our patients in New Jersey to have to come to one location in New Brunswick, so we have two other brand new, state-of-the-art outpatient cancer centers entirely focused on outpatient care: the Melchiorre Cancer Center at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, and the Specialty and Cancer Care Center on the Vogel Medical Campus in Tinton Falls. Each of those is a 150,000-square-foot facility for outpatient care with multidisciplinary teams, enabling care coordination across the state.
We have a navigator system with over 60 specialty navigators that are engaged the moment a patient encounters us. We have a cancer-dedicated call center for physicians and patients where we try to navigate patients to the closest facility across our 12-hospital network, ideally within 15 or 20 minutes from where the patient lives. We say, “Many doors open to a single program.” Whichever door you enter, you’re going to get access to the exceptional subspecialists that we’ve recruited from all over the world to be focused on your cancer problem.
Q: As the first and only freestanding cancer hospital in New Jersey, how do you envision the hospital addressing health disparities and improving access to cancer care in underserved communities?
SL: I’m very fortunate that I get to work for the state’s largest public research university and the state’s largest academic health system. RWJBarnabas Health is an incredible provider of not only health care, but the state’s main safety net for improving health. RWJBarnabas Health provides the largest amount of charity care and is the largest deliverer to Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries of any other health system in the state by a factor of two.
We are also a need-blind entity. It’s important to us to get to the folks that need us and to navigate them to us for their care.
We have places where we grow vegetables so we can get nutritious food into communities where access to that may be a problem. We’re one of the largest employers in the state. We have an absolute commitment to outreach and engage communities all over the state, and assist with screening and prevention efforts.
We established a program with the Department of Health in 2018 called ScreenNJ, which promotes screening for the high-incidence cancers in the state. To date, we have screened over 110,000 New Jerseyans, 80,000 of which are in underserved or underrepresented communities, and detected over 10,000 premalignant or early cancers.
We worked with Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield on an at-home infusion program. It was launched during the pandemic but continues to grow now for patients that have difficulty getting to our facilities.
Q: What role does Rutgers University’s academic mission play in the operations and vision for the center?
SL: There is a real commitment to care on the system side and an equally strong commitment to research and training on the Rutgers University side.
The Jack and Sheryl Morris Cancer Center is a microcosm of those two important commitments. We have 10 state-of-the-art basic science labs, each capable of supporting 10 researchers, meaning 100 cancer-dedicated researchers will have state-of-the-art space in the Morris Cancer Center. Additionally, the skybridge connects to our legacy Rutgers Cancer Institute building that already has 35 research laboratories. The Morris Cancer Center will be a big center of gravity for conducting cutting-edge research, all within the environment of where we deliver care.
There are big floor-to-ceiling windows on the laboratories that patients can see, we call it “science on display.” Patients can see the science happening and the investigators can see the patients that they’re working so hard to help.
Q: Looking ahead, what are your top priorities for the first year at the new facility?
SL: We’ll be opening to outpatient care in the next several weeks, so my first focus is making sure patients are transitioned from where we’re currently giving them their outpatient cancer care in New Brunswick to the Jack and Sheryl Morris Cancer Center. We’re also increasing our workforce to be able to accommodate the increased capacity that we have for caring for patients.
In August, we’ll be opening the inpatient portion of the hospital and our operating rooms, so I’ll be making sure that transition goes smoothly for the patients currently at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, and beginning to get our operating rooms running properly.
In terms of looking ahead to the next year, we’ve already built an incredible team of subspecialists in the last six years, but I’ll be focusing on filling whatever gaps we perceive we need to fill.
It’s exciting to build a building, but it’s more exciting to actually see it come to life.
Editor’s note: This article was updated June 3, 2025 at 2:15 pm CT.
