a milestone moment in New Brunswick tonight where the state's first ever standalone cancer hospital is officially open to patients Local and state leaders cut the ribbon this afternoon at the Jack and Cheryl Morris Cancer Center with the hope it'll usher in a new era of care enabling cancer patients from all around the state to get everything they need under one roof Raven Santana has the story New Jersey is now home to its first and only freestanding fully comprehensive cancer hospital the Jack and Cheryl Morris Cancer Center joining just 12 other similar facilities nationwide NJ Spotlight News received an exclusive tour of the cutting edge 12-story 520,000 square foot center which brings together a full spectrum of advanced oncology services from Rucker Cancer Institute and RWJ Barnabas Health and underwriter of NJ Spotlight News all housed under one roof The opening of the new cancer center comes at a critical time as New Jersey is expected to see nearly 60,000 new cancer diagnoses this year According to the American Cancer Society you could really get no worse feeling than the feeling you get with that you have cancer diagnosis And so we see it as our mission to wrap a blanket around the patient as soon as they get their diagnosis Dr Steven Lebouti director of the Rucker Cancer Institute and senior vice president of oncology services at RWJ Barnabis Health says the new cancer hospital combines both outpatient and inpatient care with research laboratories retail space and a range of ancillary services focused on supporting patient wellness The building fully landed just above 900 million 96 inpatient rooms all are private 84 infusion chairs uh little over 85 exam rooms Each floor is intentionally crafted with its unique theme and purpose like this Jersey Shore pediatric outpatient clinic space fostering an uplifting atmosphere that feels far from a traditional hospital setting Our infusion unit has amenities for both the patient and their family members Areas where they can relax where they can charge their devices where they can get a snack where they can get beverages Um and the same is true even in our inpatient uh floors where it's designed not to appear like a hospital more like a hotel room or your living room or your own room When researchers come into this building they're going to be in a building with the patients that they serve And that's inspiring to to experience every day Rucker's Cancer Institutees Dr Christian Henrik stresses the importance of having physicians and scientists working side by side in the same building Having the physicians and the scientists in the same building together It means much more interaction and it really facilitates translational research and that's the kind of research where we study patients and understand the cancer biology and why treatments are working or not working and we try to develop better treatments and the translational research where we develop new treatments in the laboratory and then take them to the patients Dr Henriks explains that a key area of research at the center is the advancement of cuttingedge cell therapies And these are the types of treatments where uh from the patient we obtain some of their immune cells from the blood and then we uh engineer these cells in the laboratory We arm them to be able to attack the tumor and then give them back to the patients And so we have clinical trials like that that we'll be doing um here for a variety of different types of cancer I am so proud of our over 500 nurses here They are highly specialized We have infusion nurses inpatient oncology nurses with a specialty in bone marrow transplant CARTT surgical oncology radiation oncology President of nursing at the center emphasizes that patients will no longer need to travel far to receive top tier cancer care Everything will be in one space under one roof So you have all of your ambulatory services you have your inpatient oncology services everything is right here There's no need for patients to be sent here for a test or over here for their ambulatory care or back around for inpatient care Everything is right here to give them what they need The Jack and Cheryl Morris Cancer Center located on the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital campus in New Brunswick is connected to the existing hospital and the Rucker Cancer Institute via a skybridge Hospital executives I spoke with say the design facilitates seamless access between the facilities enhancing coordination of care and collaboration among medical teams Dr Lebouti says that they will begin receiving patients within the next 3 to four weeks For NJ Spotlight News I'm Raven Santana