The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) is located on the campus of the Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The Cancer Center maintains a 123 bed facility at its partner medical institution, the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, and it is the only Cancer Center of its type in the state. The CINJ treats all forms of cancer, and for children who have been diagnosed with the disease, the CINJ hosts the Bristol-Meyers Squibb Children’s Hospital. All rooms at the hospital are private and offer hotel-style accommodations that provide sleeping areas for family members.
Approximately 1,200 cancer patients are admitted to the CINJ annually, and in addition to the cancer services offered at the New Jersey campus, the CINJ offers its services to cancer patients through its affiliations with a network of hospitals located throughout the state. Additionally, the CINJ collaborates with the New Jersey Family Medicine Research Network, local churches, and a variety of community organizations to provide important cancer screening and prevention information to all residents of the Garden State.
A National Network of Cancer Education, Treatment, and Research Centers
The CINJ is a Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) that is part of a national network of Cancer Centers that are located in all regions of the United States. In the early 1960s, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) saw the need for a nationwide approach to the delivery of critical cancer services, and as a result, the NCI lobbied Congress for the legislative authority and funding for such a program.
In 1971, the National Cancer Act (NCA) was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Nixon. The NCA provided the foundation for the national network of Cancer Centers in existence today, and each of these medical facilities were designed to be in a close affiliation with a major university. Of the 63 National Cancer Centers in the country, only 41 are granted the NCI CCC designation, a ranking that is only awarded to those Cancer Centers that meet or exceed stringent NCI guidelines for the delivery of cancer services.
Cancer Research at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey
Cancer research is a critical component of all Comprehensive Cancer Centers, and the research programs at the CINJ have been widely recognized for their contribution to the ongoing fight against the disease. The research programs at the CINJ offer cancer patients the opportunity to participate in a variety of clinical trials, and approximately 1,000 patients at the medical complex are currently enrolled in one of these trials. Cancer Research programs at the CINJ are currently organized under the three main divisions of Basic Science, Clinical Science, and Cancer Prevention, Control, and Population Science. Under the three preceding divisions, research at the CINJ is further divided into eight separate studies that are briefly outlined below:
- Molecular Mechanisms of Tumor Growth: Researchers in this study concentrate on the subtle differences between cell growth and cell death. These studies are designed to better understand the inception and progression of malignant disease in humans.
- Cytokines, Cytokine Signaling and Cancer: Cytokines are molecular structures that, much like hormones, offer instructions to cells that modify cellular behavior. The language of these Cytokine instructions or ‘signals’ is an important component to cancer researchers who seek to understand aberrant cellular behaviors that lead to cancer.
- Transcriptional Regulations and Oncogenesis: A field of research that identifies the basic mechanisms of genetic expression that are altered on a cellular or genetic level in such a way as to allow uncontrolled cell growth that leads to the formation of a malignant mass or tumor.
- Cancer Pharmacology/Developmental Therapeutics: Researchers here apply knowledge learned from other studies in an interdisciplinary and translational effort to use these findings to develop novel and innovative drug therapies to manage cancer while improving the quality of life for those individuals who have the disease.
- Breast Cancer Research: One of the goals here is to find new ways to identify those individuals who are predisposed to breast cancer while investigating the origins and progression of the disease. Breast cancer prevention is a key element of this research, as is finding new and better ways to treat breast malignancies.
- Prostate Cancer: These studies concentrate on the origins of prostate cancer through a number of cell and prostate biology investigations on the molecular level. A better understanding of normal prostate growth helps researchers to identify the various mechanisms that can lead to Oncogenesis or uncontrolled cell growth in the prostate.
- Population Science: The environmental and behavioral causes of cancer are the focus here. By studying the occurrence of cancer in various populations while identifying specific behaviors, such as cigarette smoking or prolonged environmental exposures to known carcinogens such as asbestos, researchers are better able to develop clinical therapies to prevent, control, and eventually, cure the disease.
Patient Care at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey
Adult and pediatric cancer patients at the CINJ are provided with state-of-the-art treatments for all forms of cancer at the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital on the medical school campus. Faculty oncologists and other support personnel from the medical school consult closely with patients and researchers at the CINJ to ensure that all patients are receiving the most up-to-date cancer therapies available. Surgical, chemotherapy, and radiological treatments are all available at the New Jersey medical complex, and CINJ care is also available through its affiliation with other hospitals located throughout the state.
The CINJ also provides cancer patients with a wide variety of treatment support services such as numerous types of counseling, pre and post-treatment support groups, community resource information, hospice information, financial and insurance resource information and more.
Contact the Cancer Institute of New Jersey
To make an appointment, call (732) 235-8515 for adults, and for a pediatric appointment call (732) 235-7552. For a more complete phone listing directory or to learn more about the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, please visit their website at www.cinj.org
Cancer Institute of New Jersey
195 Little Albany Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08903-2861
Google map of Cancer Institute of New Jersey
