In an endeavor to expand cancer care for the rapidly growing communities of south Hillsborough County, Tampa General Hospital (TGH) opened a state-of-the-art, 26-bay Infusion Center in the TGH Cancer Institute’s Brandon location. Additionally, a Radiation Oncology Center will open at the Brandon location, 10740 Palm River Road, this fall.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on July 19th.
“By collaborating with some of the nation’s preeminent physicians and researchers, we established a leading-edge, research-driven Cancer Institute. Our multidisciplinary team combines the highest level of expertise with compassion as they provide personalized treatments to the greater Tampa Bay region,” said John Couris, president and CEO of Tampa General Hospital. “Our new TGH Cancer Institute location allows us to expand our reach and provide greater access to our community.”
The TGH Cancer Institute satellite location in Brandon is part of Tampa General’s $550 million master facility plan, the largest in the hospital’s almost 100-year history. Once completed, TGH will bring more of the most advanced technology and leading-edge care to the academic health system’s patients in Florida and beyond.
Having the TGH Cancer Institute in Brandon means that residents in south Hillsborough will no longer have to travel to the Tampa General Hospital campus near downtown Tampa for infusion treatments, radiation oncology and doctor visits. Its location in the outpatient center means that patients can also receive lab work, standard imaging exams as well as visit the pharmacy for prescriptions and over the counter medications.
“The addition of the Infusion Center to our rapidly growing Cancer Institute allows us to reach even more members of our community who need access to personalized and empathetic research-driven cancer care,” said Dr. Eduardo M. Sotomayor, director of the TGH Cancer Institute. “Since opening the Brandon location last fall, the number of patients the Infusion Center has treated in our Brandon location has exceeded expectations and we hope our strategic position near the intersection of two major highways will help in removing geographical barriers and allow us to continue to treat more patients who need it.”
The TGH Cancer Institute’s Infusion Center will offer seven more chemotherapy areas for the treatment of cancer. This will bring the total number of infusion areas to 26, which is expected to make scheduling treatments more efficient.
Designed to encourage therapeutic connection and camaraderie, the Infusion Center at TGH Cancer Institute in Brandon is equipped with advanced technology and offers spacious semi-private, private, and shared treatment bays, as well as a separate space with beverages and light snacks for patients’ family members. At the infusion center, patients can receive treatments ordered by their doctor including chemotherapy, immunotherapy, blood transfusions and more.
The Brandon location is staffed by a group of cancer care specialists and physician-scientists, as well as specially trained oncology nurses, physician assistants, or nurse practitioners who are experts in delivering compassionate cancer care for all oncology infusion needs within the following specialties:
- Breast cancer, lung, gynecologic and colorectal cancers, head and neck cancers, and sarcomas
- Advanced care, including abdominal cancers such as liver and hepatobiliary, urologic and genital cancers, and blood cancers
- Neurology, neurosurgery, and neuro-oncology
This fall, the Radiation Oncology Center at the TGH Cancer Institute in Brandon will open. It will provide evidence-based, multimodal radiation therapies, including high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy — a targeted radiation treatment that provides higher doses while preserving the surrounding tissue or skin. The center will also offer radiopharmaceuticals (radioisotopes to target specific organs, tissues or cells) and the TrueBeam™ system (an advanced medical linear accelerator capable of fast and precise image-guided radiation therapy).
“This TGH Radiation Oncology Center is a testament to the TGH Cancer Institute’s commitment to providing world-class care to our community,” said Dr. Richard Tuli, professor and chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, deputy director of the TGH Cancer Institute, and director of Radiation Oncology at Tampa General Hospital. Tuli joined TGH from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, N.Y. “Added capacity means we can provide treatment to more of the most difficult cancer cases safely using the most cutting-edge technology available to us in a location close to those who live in south Hillsborough.”
In a continued effort to provide world-class care to the region, Tampa General is preparing to build a Proton Therapy Center, in collaboration with the Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute (FCS). The Center will be located within the Tampa Medical and Research District adjacent to downtown Tampa in a highly specialized and comprehensive three-story, 44,000-square-foot building at the intersection of W. Kennedy Boulevard and S. Fielding Avenue.
The expansions reflect a greater undertaking to develop a world-class cancer center at Tampa General. “The completion of the Infusion Center, the addition of a Radiation Oncology Center and a Proton Therapy Center supports our goal to advance an already sophisticated standard of care at the TGH Cancer Institute,” said Dr. Abraham Schwarzberg, executive vice president and chief of Oncology, Tampa General. “We will not stop in making world-class care accessible for cancer patients and their families.”
In December 2022, Tampa General announced that it had earned a three-year accreditation from the Commission on Cancer (CoC), a quality program established by the American College of Surgeons (ACS).
Through the TGH Cancer Institute, Tampa General and USF Health, physicians offer a highly coordinated, interdisciplinary approach to quality patient care and provide a wide range of multidisciplinary specialties such as hematologic malignancies, bone marrow transplant, cell therapy, neuro-oncology, thoracic oncology, breast, colorectal and gynecologic oncology. Advanced subspecialties include liver and hepatobiliary oncology, otolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat), and genitourinary (reproductive system and genitourinary tract).
The TGH infusion center will be open from 7am to 5:30pm Monday through Friday.
Tampa General Hospital, a 1,040-bed, not-for-profit, academic health system, is one of the largest hospitals, not just in Florida but in America, and delivers world-class care as the region’s only center for Level l trauma and comprehensive burn care.
