About the Cancer Center
- New Jersey's Leader
- Extraordinary Care
- A Building for the Future
- Specialized Divisions
- The Treatment of Tomorrow
- Basic Research
- Clinical Trials Offer Innovative Treatments
- Centers of Excellence
- Our Affiliations and Accreditations
- FAQ
New Jersey's Leader
The John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center is New Jersey's largest and most comprehensive center dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment, management, research, screenings, and preventive care of patients with all types of cancer. Each year, more people in the New Jersey/New York metropolitan area turn to the John Theurer Cancer Center for cancer care than to any other facility in New Jersey. Housed within a 775-bed not-for-profit teaching, tertiary care, and research hospital, the John Theurer Cancer Center provides state-of-the-art technological advances, compassionate care, research innovations, medical expertise, and a full range of after care services that distinguish the John Theurer Cancer Center from other facilities.
Extraordinary Care
At the John Theurer Cancer Center, we are not satisfied to provide less than the most advanced, state-of-the-art services and technology available today. Nor are we satisfied to provide less than cutting-edge basic research, clinical trials, and innovative treatment methods that are not found anywhere else in New Jersey
A Building for the Future
For more than 30 years, the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center has been a leader in the diagnosis, treatment, management, and prevention of cancer in the New Jersey-New York metropolitan area. As home to New Jersey's largest outpatient cancer program, we have worked steadily to raise our stature to one of the top cancer centers in the country and a leader in basic and clinical research programs.
Over the past three decades, we have progressed steadily in our mission to provide extraordinary care despite being housed within cramped spaces in different buildings on our main campus in Hackensack. Now it is finally time to bring all of our services together in one location. Plans are under way to build a freestanding Cancer Center that will centralize all our Divisions and the physicians, nurses, and other cancer specialists who are now scattered among various buildings. We visualize five floors that will consolidate services for various types of cancers: hematologic cancers, such as leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma; solid tumors, such as gastrointestinal, urologic, central nervous system, and head and neck cancers; women's cancers; the Department of Radiation Oncology; and administrative offices. Supportive services, such as the BEYOND day spa and the Ellen H. Lazar Shoppe on Fifth, will move in as well. The new building will offer more space for patients and doctors and for ancillary services, such as nutrition counseling, psychosocial services, and complementary therapies. As with other new buildings at Hackensack University Medical Center, the new John Theurer Cancer Center will be designed as an environmentally friendly "green" building, filled with light, air, and an upbeat atmosphere. The building will embrace our Planetree Initiative philosophy of caring for the whole patient - in mind, body, and spirit.
Perhaps the most important change that the new building will bring about is that it will be much easier and more efficient for the John Theurer Cancer Center's physicians to practice a multidisciplinary approach to diagnosis and treatment. A patient can come to the John Theurer Cancer Center and see all of his/her physicians (oncologist, surgeon, radiation oncologist, and others) during the same visit. The physicians, located just down the hall from one another, can come together more easily, frequently, and quickly to collectively arrive at the proper diagnosis and treatment plan or to discuss the ongoing management of the patient.
Specialized Divisions
The John Theurer Cancer Center comprises 14 specialized divisions, featuring teams of experts for each specific type of cancer. Each of the divisions is directed by a physician with significant clinical and research expertise in the type of cancer. This approach - which brings together a close-knit team of medical, research, nursing, and supportive staff with specialized expertise - translates into more advanced, focused care for patients. The divisions are: Breast Oncology, Gastrointestinal Oncology, Geriatric Oncology, Gynecologic Oncology, Head and Neck Oncology, Leukemia, Lymphoma, Multiple Myeloma, Neuro-Oncology, Skin and Sarcoma, Stem Cell Transplantation, Supportive Care and Pain Control, Thoracic Oncology, and Urologic Oncology. The 14th division integrates all of the medical center's oncology research into a Division of Research.
The Treatment of Tomorrow
The John Theurer Cancer Center encompasses the entire range of advanced diagnostic and treatment capabilities that are available only at major medical centers such as Hackensack University Medical Center. These include all types of imaging studies, including PET scanning, MRI, CT scanning, and nuclear medicine; advanced minimally invasive surgical diagnostics, such as stereotactic biopsies and sentinel lymph node mapping; robotic and minimally invasive surgical procedures; state-of-the-art radiation therapy, including intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), TomoTherapy®, implant and high-dose-rate brachytherapy, and stereotactic radiosurgery; non-surgical treatments, including radiofrequency ablation; advanced chemotherapy using new medications and combinations; hormonal therapy; stem cell transplantation; and highly promising immunotherapy using vaccines to destroy cancer cells.
Basic Research
As a world-class facility and academic medical center, the John Theurer Cancer Center is actively involved in clinical trials that bring research advances directly to patients. The John Theurer Cancer Center participates in more than 100 international and national cancer clinical trials that give patients access to promising investigational medications, treatment protocols, and surgical techniques that are often not available at other facilities in New Jersey. Key areas of cancer research that are currently taking place include targeted therapies that pinpoint cancer cells and spare normal cells, gene therapy to mutate cancer, advances in stem cell transplantation, new combinations of chemotherapy, new radiation oncology techniques, and the use of cancer cells and safe viruses to make vaccines that combat cancer.
Clinical Trials Offer Innovative Treatments
The John Theurer Cancer Center encompasses and/or works closely with several centers of excellence that offer diagnostic and treatment capabilities that are not readily available at other cancer facilities in New Jersey. These include the world-renowned Blood and Marrow Stem Cell Transplantation Program, among the 10 largest programs in the country; The Prostate Cancer Institute of New Jersey; The Betty Torricelli Institute for Breast Care; The Institute for Radiosurgery; The Colon Cancer Prevention Center; and The Department of Radiation Oncology.
Centers of Excellence
Basic research studies at the John Theurer Cancer Center and Hackensack University Medical Center's on-site David Joseph Jurist Research Center for Tomorrows Children are currently looking into the origins of cancer at the molecular level, how and why cells progress into cancer, and the basic biology of graft-versus-host disease, a common and potentially fatal side effect of stem cell transplantation. Stem cell transplantation is used to treat hematologic (blood) cancers, such as leukemia and lymphoma; cancers that involve solid tumors, such as breast and ovarian cancer; serious blood disorders; and immune system deficiencies.
Our Affiliations and Accreditations
Hackensack University Medical Center is a teaching, tertiary care, and research hospital affiliated with The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School, (UMDNJ) in Newark. Scientific discovery is a major component of the medical center's mission, as evidenced by partnerships with some of the nation's most prestigious research facilities. Hackensack University Medical Center's John Theurer Cancer Center is designated by The National Cancer Institute as a Community Clinical Oncology Program, one of only 50 in the nation and the only one in New Jersey. Research is conducted through The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, The Southwest Oncology Group, The Children's Oncology Group, The University of Rochester Cancer Center, and The National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project. Research studies at Hackensack University Medical Center are supported by some of the nation's top funding sources - including The National Institutes of Health, The National Science Foundation, and The American Cancer Society - and from private foundations and corporations.
In 1995, the medical center became the first hospital in the country - after the pilot program - to receive The Magnet Award for Nursing Excellence from The American Nurses Credentialing Center. The medical center received redesignation in 1999 and again in 2003.
Prevention Services and Screenings Save Lives
The John Theurer Cancer Center recognizes the importance that prevention and screenings play in reducing one's risk of developing cancer or discovering it at an early, treatable stage. Initiatives available at Hackensack University Medical Center include The Colon Cancer Prevention Center, which screens for colon cancer; The Health Awareness Regional Program, which offers cancer prevention lectures, workshops, health fairs, and free screenings for many types of cancer; The Prostate Cancer Institute of New Jersey, which runs yearly prostate cancer screenings; The Maureen Fund for Ovarian Cancer, which screens for ovarian cancer and related cancers; and The Hereditary Cancer Risk Assessment Program, which screens individuals for any hereditary risks for cancer.
Support Services Continue the Care
the John Theurer Cancer Center's full range of after care and support services extend the continuum of cancer care from the hospital to the home or other facility, and they help patients cope with all stages of their illness. Services include nutrition counseling, pastoral care, pharmacy, support groups for patients and families, individual psychosocial counseling, social services, complementary medicine therapies, rehabilitation therapy, pain management, The BEYOND day spa, and The Ellen H. Lazar Shoppe on Fifth, which sells merchandise, clothing, and specialty items for patients living with cancer.