RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Cancer Institute have transformed cancer care access across New Jersey, anchored by the Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center, the cornerstone of a more than $1.5 billion investment in oncology services statewide. Rutgers Cancer Institute holds one of New Jersey’s only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center distinctions, and its faculty draw more than $125 million annually in federal, state and philanthropic grant support across five research programs. The organizations opened the $225 million Melchiorre Cancer Center at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, N.J. in July 2026, a five-story, 137,000-square-foot outpatient facility, with a second specialty and cancer care center planned for the Vogel Medical Campus in Tinton Falls, N.J. in 2027. At the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, physician-scientists presented 39 peer-reviewed abstracts, including late-breaking results from the I-SPY 2.2 trial evaluating rilvegostomig and trastuzumab deruxtecan in high-risk HER2-negative breast cancer. One physician received a four-year, $800,000 grant from the V Foundation for Cancer Research to advance T-cell immunotherapies for cancers caused by human papillomavirus, building on phase 2 results in which six of 10 patients saw significant tumor shrinkage, including two complete responses. The system also recruited a chief of breast surgery and co-director of its multidisciplinary breast program. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital was ranked No. 4 in New Jersey and No. 17 in the Mid-Atlantic region by U.S. News & World Report, earning a “high-performing” designation in cancer care delivered jointly with Rutgers Cancer Institute.
