Mass General Cancer Center Planned at Cooley Dickinson

NORTHAMPTON — Starting this summer, Cooley Dickinson Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center will bring expanded, cutting-edge oncology services to the Pioneer Valley through the Mass General Cancer Center at Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

The new venture will substantially broaden the depth and breadth of cancer services at CDH, which has collaborated with the Mass General Cancer Center since 2009. In 2015, the Mass General Cancer Center at Cooley Dickinson will relocate to a new facility in the North Building of CDH’s Locust Street campus.

Craig Melin, president and CEO of Cooley Dickinson, said the expansion of the relationship between the Mass General Cancer Center and CDH is the first local clinical service to be strengthened as a result of the two hospitals’ new affiliation.

Dr. Sean Mullally, medical director of the Cooley Dickinson Cancer Care Program, said the new center will be operated by Mass General Hospital Cancer Center and that all the physicians will become Mass General doctors. “Our new working relationship will increase access for Pioneer Valley residents to nationally ranked expertise and world-class cancer care, often without having to leave Northampton.”

Mullally said expanded services will include:

• Access to clinical trials at Mass General Cancer Center, one of the nation’s leaders in targeted therapy trials in lung cancer, melanoma, and other diseases;

• Implementation of Mass General Cancer Center’s multidisciplinary care model, where patients and their medical, radiation, and surgical oncologists meet in a single appointment to plan all aspects of care;

• Increased number of Mass General Cancer Center-modeled chemotherapy and radiation-therapy treatment protocols available at Cooley Dickinson; and

• Access to Mass General Cancer Center-led genetic screening and counseling, which is critical for many cancers.

Dr. Joel Schwartz, director of Oncology Services at the Mass General/North Shore Cancer Center, and Medical Oncology Network clinical director at Mass General Cancer Center, will provide oversight of the new facility. He said the new relationship between Mass General and Cooley Dickinson is a visible example of the future of cancer care.

 “Cancer is complex, and it takes a coordinated relationship between community hospitals and academic medical centers to create a new cancer-care paradigm, where the right approach to care and treatment is delivered to the right patient at the right time and in the right place,” Schwartz said. “That’s where cancer care is going and why the Mass General Cancer Center at Cooley Dickinson Hospital is important to the people of the Pioneer Valley.”

Besides Mullally, physicians who will be a part of the Mass General Cancer Center at Cooley Dickinson include medical oncologist/hematologist Dr. Lindsay Rockwell, medical oncologists Dr. Barrett Newsome and Dr. Deborah Smith, and radiation oncologists Dr. Linda Bornstein and Dr. Jennifer Hyder.

Mullally said all the physicians, along with the nurses, radiation therapists, social workers, and other members of the cancer-care staff at Cooley Dickinson, are excited about becoming the care team of the Mass General Cancer Center at Cooley Dickinson.

CDH and Mass General Cancer Center physicians and staff have collaborated closely over the past year in designing the new facility. It will be built directly above the current Radiation Therapy Department at Cooley Dickinson. The CDH Development team has raised $2.4 million toward the $5 million goal to fund construction of the center.