Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baltimore Maryland
Located in the heart of Baltimore, Maryland, and with satellite locations throughout Baltimore and the Washington DC metro area, the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center is one of the top-ranked cancer facilities in the country. Known for both its clinical care and its groundbreaking research, the hospital offers mesothelioma patients individualized treatment plans and innovative specialty programs including the Lung Cancer Program and the Peritoneal Surface Malignancy Program.
Facts About the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
The Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center is one of only 53 such centers in the country designated by the National Cancer Institute as a Comprehensive Cancer Center. The Johns Hopkins Hospital ranked #6 in the nation for Cancer, based on U.S. News & World Report’s 2021–22 rankings.[1]
In 2016, the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center added the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, providing a home for collaboration between clinicians and researchers working to harness the power of cancer immunotherapy across many different cancer types, including malignant mesothelioma.
The Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center is made up of 35 different departments and five schools across Johns Hopkins University. While the center’s focus and mission is providing improved clinical care and treatment for patients, that treatment is driven by the groundbreaking research and clinical trials conducted at the center.[2]
The Kimmel Cancer Center has a unique Community Outreach and Engagement program that works with local partners to ensure that all Maryland residents have equal access to cancer prevention, treatment, and services for survivors.
History
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center has its roots in a visionary plan that began in 1872, when businessman and philanthropist Johns Hopkins created a plan for a hospital that would provide care to anyone, regardless of sex, age, or race. The hospital bearing his name opened in 1889 and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine opened four years later. Over 130 years, the two institutions became known for innovation in clinical care, teaching, and discovery, and were the home of breakthrough discoveries including studies in medical genetics, the use of an electronic defibrillator, and discovery of the treatments in pain relief and addiction.
In 1973, the hospital’s newly established Department of Oncology became one of the first 18 in the nation to be designated by the National Cancer Institute as a Comprehensive Cancer Center, with active programs in clinical research, laboratory research, education, community outreach, and prevention and control. In 1984 the center refined the anticancer compound paclitaxel, which was considered among the most promising anti-cancer drugs in decades, and in 2006, five Cancer Center physicians were named by Science Watch as the most often cited in all cancer research worldwide between 1995 and 2005.
In 2001, the cancer center was renamed the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center in recognition of philanthropist Sidney Kimmel’s transformative gift to Johns Hopkins University. Over the years the Center has opened numerous specialty programs, including the Upper Aerodigestive Cancer Program and the Peritoneal Surface Malignancy Program, which both provide treatment to patients diagnosed with all types of malignant mesothelioma.[3]
Treating Mesothelioma
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center is home to innovative research and treatments focused on preventing, screening for, diagnosing, and treating both lung cancers and peritoneal cancers, including malignant pleural mesothelioma and malignant peritoneal mesothelioma.
The Division of Upper Aerodigestive Malignancies in the Department of Oncology and the Lung Cancer Program treats patients with lung cancer, mesothelioma, and other thoracic cancers. The program offers a multidisciplinary approach in which patient care is provided by lung cancer medical specialists as well as nurse practitioners, palliative care specialists, and medical informaticists, all of whom work together to create an individualized treatment plan.
Patients with peritoneal mesothelioma are treated at the Peritoneal Surface Malignancy Program, where surgical oncologists perform cytoreductive surgery both with and without hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) treatment, a procedure that has been shown to effectively extend survival.
Mesothelioma Research
Hopkins’ scientists have long been engaged in innovative research into cancers of all kinds, and mesothelioma is no exception. Directing the multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Clinical Research Program, Dr. Patrick Forde is leading the development of a clinical-translational research program focused on the role of immunotherapy for mesothelioma and lung cancer. His work has led to the development of several ongoing phase 3 trials and the approval of neoadjuvant chemo-immunotherapy for the treatment of surgically operable lung cancer.
Under the direction of the Peritoneal Surface Malignancy Program led by Dr. Jonathan Greer, researchers are investigating the molecular drivers of peritoneal metastasis, the role of immunotherapy in peritoneal malignancy, and clinical outcomes research to enhance patient selection in cytoreductive surgery with and without hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) in malignant peritoneal mesothelioma and other peritoneal surface malignancies.
The clinicians and researchers at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center in Baltimore are taking the treatment of malignant mesothelioma to a new level. Working towards new discoveries, leveraging immunotherapy and other technologies, and translating research into today’s therapies, the hospital has earned its stellar reputation as one of the nation’s premier locations for cancer treatment.
