Dana-Farber Cancer Hospital Construction Begins in Longwood

Construction on the Dana-Farber cancer hospital began Monday, Oct. 19, 2026, in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Beth Israel Lahey Health are building a $1.68 billion, 300-bed hospital that will treat only cancer patients, the first of its kind in New England, according to The Boston Globe. The same day, Dana-Farber moved its breast cancer care into a new model with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

The $1.68 Billion Dana-Farber Cancer Hospital by the Numbers

The hospital is set to open in 2031 on the site of the former Joslin Diabetes Center on Brookline Avenue, the Globe reported. Key figures from that report:

• 300 inpatient beds in about 450,000 square feet across 10 floors.
• 30 intensive care beds and a 16-bed observation suite, so patients can finish treatment after outpatient clinics close without being admitted.
• Four floors with special air protection to reduce infection risk for patients with very weak immune systems.
• About 2,400 new workers over the next four years, including 400 nurses during the transition and another 200 nurses for the ICU and observation units at opening.
• A bridge to Beth Israel Deaconess, replacing the bridge Dana-Farber has long shared with Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

“Seeing the construction and really imagining what it’s going to look like and what we’re going to be able to do is motivating,” Dana-Farber CEO Dr. Benjamin Ebert told the Globe. Beth Israel CEO Dr. Kevin Tabb said in a statement that the partners are “building something that has the potential to transform cancer care across our region.”

Breast Oncology Is the First Service to Move

Dana-Farber and BIDMC announced on Oct. 15 that breast oncology would fully transition on Oct. 19. Outpatient breast oncology stays at Dana-Farber, while breast cancer surgery moves to BIDMC. It is the first of several treatment centers that will shift in phases over the next few years.

The surgical team is led by Dr. Elizabeth Mittendorf, chief of breast surgery at BIDMC and current president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. She previously held an endowed chair in surgical oncology at the Brigham. The Globe reported that at least two of the nine other surgeons in her division also came from the Brigham.

Patients are not required to switch. In a letter to patients cited by the Globe, Dana-Farber said those who want to keep seeing their Brigham surgeon, radiation oncologist or other specialists will be supported. “In all cases, patients have the agency to choose who takes care of them,” Ebert said, as quoted in the Globe’s Oct. 15 report.

Dana-Farber’s release also highlighted BIDMC’s use of Clairity Breast, an FDA-authorized AI tool that estimates a woman’s five-year breast cancer risk from a routine mammogram. According to the release, 125 women have used it at BIDMC, with 550 more screening appointments scheduled.

A Longwood Rivalry With Mass General Brigham

Dana-Farber announced in 2023 that it would leave its decades-long partnership with the Brigham for Beth Israel Lahey Health. The Globe reported that Mass General Brigham had been hesitant to help fund a new facility where Dana-Farber would control more beds. Dana-Farber and MGB will formally separate in 2028. Until the new hospital opens, Dana-Farber inpatients will be moved in stages from the Brigham to BIDMC, Ebert told the Globe.

MGB is answering with a $400 million cancer institute of its own. Its Herb Chambers Tower at Massachusetts General Hospital, funded with a $100 million gift, is slated to open in September 2027 with 228 inpatient beds. MGB said its Brigham-based breast clinic opened in May, that it will offer eight cancer specialties by November, and that a new outpatient practice will open next month in the Hale Building for Transformative Medicine.

For more on Mass General Brigham in the news, see our coverage of the Brigham nurses strike postponement and the City Council’s Oct. 7 resolution on Mass General Brigham.

Analysis

This section is analysis and opinion, separate from the reporting above.

This is one of the biggest private construction projects underway in Boston at a time when the city’s own planners say large housing projects have struggled to start. Cranes in Longwood and 2,400 promised jobs are a real economic boost for the city, and they show that health care and life sciences remain the steadiest part of Boston’s economy.

The bigger story is competition for talent. Two well-funded systems are now building cancer capacity a few blocks apart, and both will need oncologists, nurses and physician assistants. The Globe noted the two sides have already clashed over physician assistants. That fight could push wages up, which is good news for clinicians but adds cost pressure in a state already focused on health care spending. Patients, meanwhile, will face more choices but also more complexity in where their care happens over the next five years. How smoothly the breast oncology move goes will be an early signal for the larger transition ahead.

Featured image: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Yawkey Center for Cancer Care at 450 Brookline Avenue. Photo by ajay_suresh via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.

Sources

• The Boston Globe: Dana-Farber, Beth Israel cancer hospital construction begins (Oct. 19, 2026)
• The Boston Globe: Dana-Farber to transfer breast cancer services away from Brigham, toward Beth Israel (Oct. 15, 2026)
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Dana-Farber and BIDMC bring new care model to breast cancer patients
• Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center: BIDMC and Dana-Farber new care model announcement