Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory And North Shore-LIJ Announce Strategic Affiliation To Accelerate Benefits Of Cancer Research To Patients

COLD SPRING HARBOR, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and the North Shore-LIJ Health System today announced a strategic affiliation to align CSHL's world-class cancer research with North Shore-LIJ’s growing network of clinical services encompassing more than 16,000 new cancer cases annually across the New York metropolitan area.

“Bringing the scientists of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory together with the more than 200 academic oncologists and clinicians of the North Shore-LIJ Cancer Institute will transform our approach to cancer research and treatment throughout the New York area”

The CSHL-North Shore-LIJ affiliation will benefit from the investment of more than $120 million to accelerate cancer research, diagnosis and treatment. Funds will be used to advance cancer therapeutics research, develop a new clinical cancer research unit at the North Shore-LIJ Cancer Institute's headquarters in Lake Success, NY to support early-phase clinical studies of new cancer therapies, and recruit and train more clinician-scientists in oncology.

"This is a transformative affiliation for both institutions, bringing the cutting-edge basic discovery science and translational cancer research at CSHL to one of the largest cancer treatment centers in the United States. The unique integration of research scientists, clinical translational researchers and cancer clinicians promises to speed the advance of novel cancer diagnostics and therapeutics to patients in the region," said CSHL President & CEO Bruce Stillman.

"Bringing the scientists of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory together with the more than 200 academic oncologists and clinicians of the North Shore-LIJ Cancer Institute will transform our approach to cancer research and treatment throughout the New York area,” said North Shore-LIJ President and CEO Michael Dowling. “North Shore-LIJ oncologists will make CSHL's promising pre-clinical research available as innovative trials to select cancer patients at a much earlier stage, building on the clinical and translational research programs the health system has been offering its patients for more than 30 years and establishing our Cancer Institute as a destination for pioneering cancer therapies.”

The CSHL-North Shore-LIJ affiliation will recruit cancer researchers and clinicians to the region. As part of the collaboration, clinician-scientists will be trained to perform preclinical cancer research and conduct early-stage human clinical trials. Positive findings from this partnership in research and therapeutics will form the basis for advanced-phase clinical trials to be conducted both at North Shore-LIJ facilities and collaborating outside medical centers. Patients cared for at North Shore-LIJ Cancer Institute facilities will benefit from increased access to these innovative clinical studies.

The CSHL affiliation is the latest bold step by North Shore-LIJ to improve the coordination of multidisciplinary cancer care. Over the past two years, North Shore-LIJ has already invested more than $175 million to open and expand cancer treatment centers throughout Long Island and New York City. A recently completed $84 million expansion of the Cancer Institute’s headquarters in Lake Success consolidated all cancer services offered by North Shore University Hospital and LIJ Medical Center in a state-of-the-art 130,000-square-foot facility, including ambulatory hematology/oncology, chemotherapy and radiation medicine, as well as surgical oncology and brain tumor services. North Shore-LIJ is also building a new $34 million, 45,500-square-foot outpatient cancer center in Bay Shore, NY and is pursuing other major expansions on Long Island and in Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island and Westchester County.

As one of the first research institutes to join the nation’s War on Cancer in the early 1970s, CSHL has made seminal discoveries that have helped diagnose and treat cancer patients, including the discovery of the first human cancer gene in 1982. The CSHL Cancer Center has been a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center since 1987, and is the only such center on Long Island. A not-for-profit independent research and education institution, CSHL has an annual operating budget of $145 million and more than 35 independent laboratories and faculty focused on basic and applied cancer research. These scientists explore fundamental cellular and tissue processes that go wrong in cancer, basic research that has already transformed the development of new treatments for many types of cancer. Current research focuses on cancers of the breast, lung, prostate, pancreas, cervix, ovary and skin, as well as research on gliomas and medulloblastoma, leukemia and lymphoma, myelodysplastic syndrome, carcinoid tumors and sarcomas.

The North Shore-LIJ Cancer Institute is part of a fully integrated health system that treats millions of patients annually at 19 hospitals and more than 400 outpatient physician practices throughout the metropolitan area. The CSHL-North Shore-LIJ clinical research collaboration will distinguish the health system from other cancer specialty centers for its ability to deliver new cancer therapeutics to patients throughout the region, while also meeting the comprehensive medical and surgical needs of those afflicted with and at risk of the disease. Every year, North Shore-LIJ cares for more than 16,000 new cancer cases, giving patients access to the services of more than 200 physicians in over 25 sub-specialties.

Under the terms of the strategic affiliation, North Shore-LIJ and CSHL will continue as independent organizations governed by their respective Boards of Trustees. The institutions have appointed a committee with responsibility for oversight, staffing and implementation of the affiliation that includes three representatives of CSHL: President and CEO Dr. Bruce Stillman, Director of Research Dr. David L. Spector, and Cancer Center Deputy Director Dr. David Tuveson; and three representatives of North Shore-LIJ: Physician-in-Chief Dr. Lawrence G. Smith, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research President and CEO Dr. Kevin J. Tracey, and Dr. Thomas McGinn, Chair of Medicine.

About CSHL

Celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2015, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has shaped contemporary biomedical research and education with programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology and quantitative biology. Home to eight Nobel Prize winners, the private, not-for-profit Laboratory has more than 600 researchers and technical staff. The Meetings & Courses Program hosts more than 12,000 scientists from around the world each year on its campuses in Long Island and in Suzhou, China. The Laboratory's education arm also includes an academic publishing house, a graduate school and programs for middle and high school students and teachers. For more information, visit www.cshl.edu.

About North Shore-LIJ

The North Shore-LIJ Health System is one of the nation's largest health systems, delivering world-class clinical care throughout the New York metropolitan area. It conducts pioneering research at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, a visionary approach to medical education highlighted by the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, and offers healthcare coverage to individuals, families and businesses through the CareConnect Insurance Co. Inc. North Shore-LIJ cares for people at every stage of life at 19 hospitals and more than 400 outpatient physician practices throughout the region. North Shore-LIJ's owned hospitals and long-term care facilities house more than 6,400 beds, employ nearly 11,000 nurses and have affiliations with about 10,000 physicians. With a workforce of about 54,000, North Shore-LIJ is the largest private employer in New York State. For more information, go to www.northshorelij.com.