Northwell Health's new $14 million Center for Women's Cancer set to open in New Hyde Park

Northwell Health is opening a facility in New Hyde Park that will treat women diagnosed with breast and gynecologic cancers, an official said.

The $14 million Center for Women’s Cancer will open Oct. 6, said Dr. Veena John, system head for gynecologic medical oncology at the Northwell Cancer Institute and medical director for the new center. 

Breast and gynecologic “cancers are often linked,” said Dr. Richard Barakat, physician-in-chief and executive director of the Northwell Health Cancer Institute, noting that patients often suffer from both conditions. “When it comes to breast and gynecologic cancers, there are certain inherited mutations, [such as] the BRCA mutation, which predisposes women to both breast and ovarian cancer.”

The new facility at the R.J. Zuckerberg Cancer Center will connect the Northwell Cancer Institute and Northwell’s Katz Institute for Women’s Health.

The 21,000-square-foot facility will be staffed by more than 20 physicians and include 26 exam rooms, 10 consultation rooms, two procedure rooms and an onsite laboratory, according to a news release. The center will also offer an array of support services, including oncology nutrition, social work and financial counseling.

“We recognize that there are distinct challenges faced by women who are battling cancer,” John said. “This facility is designed to offer a very holistic approach to that."

Patient navigators fluent in nine languages will be available to help patients access treatments for other health concerns, Barakat said.

Experimental cancer therapies will also be available for patients on the same campus, he said, another reason the new women’s cancer center is “unique.”

The center will help patients by facilitating "team strategies for treatment, easier and timely appointments, timely reporting of test results — because waiting for those results is high anxiety, to say the least — and it also gives access to clinical trials," said Joanne Marquardt, research advocate at the Babylon Breast Cancer Coalition and Long Island field coordinator for the National Breast Cancer Coalition. She is also a 21-year breast cancer survivor. 

Dozens of  facilities treat breast cancer on Long Island, where the disease is more common than elsewhere in the country, Newsday has reported. 

Between 2017 and 2021, the incidence of breast cancer diagnoses on average was 146.8 per 100,000 women in Nassau County and 140.7 in Suffolk County, according to the New York State Cancer Registry.

Age is also a "leading indicator for all diseases, especially cancer," and Long Island has a larger senior population on average than elsewhere in the state, said Janine Logan, vice president of communications and population health at Suburban Hospital Alliance of New York State. 

"Data collected by the Long Island Health Collaborative, which is overseen by the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council, has consistently found that cancer lands in the top three concerns for their communities," she said.

On a national level, a new center dedicated to cancers affecting women fills a need for more facilities dedicated specifically to women's health, said Monica Lefton, communications director at the nonprofit Society for Women's Health Research. 

"Historically, women's health has been under-researched and therefore misunderstood for decades, and that translates into the care that women receive," she said, pointing out that a lot of scientific literature and medical treatments have primarily  focused on men.  

The New Hyde Park center is a step toward closing that gender gap, she said, and may offer its patients a sense of relief "knowing that all of the doctors there have the education and background specific to women's cancers."

Donna Marano, president of the West Islip Breast Cancer Coalition and a breast cancer survivor, said it's "phenomenal" that Northwell will open a center dedicated to breast and gynecological cancers. 

The coalition, along with other regional groups for breast cancer survivors, works to support women with breast and gynecological cancers all over Long Island, she said, often connecting with patients through facilities like the center at Northwell.

"I had a really hard time trying to figure out why I had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Why me?" she recalled. "I needed the support group. I needed to sit with them and get through it."

Breast cancer patients and survivors can contact local coalitions for support, she said.

Other cancer facilities on Long Island include Mount Sinai South Nassau, Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering and Stony Brook Cancer Center.