AHN, Johns Hopkins end cancer center partnership

After nearly a decade, Allegheny Health Network and Johns Hopkins are ending their cancer center collaboration.

The affiliation between the Pittsburgh-based health care system and the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins was established in 2014 and ended earlier this year.

AHN will continue to partner with Johns Hopkins on other programs, including lung transplantation, maternal-fetal medicine and gynecologic care, said Dan Laurent, spokesperson.

AHN said it is grateful for the collaboration, but its own cancer services have expanded over the years.

“Since establishing the partnership in 2014 AHN’s Cancer Institute has grown considerably, both in scale and sophistication,” Laurent said. “Highmark Health and AHN in fact have invested more than $300 million to expand and enhance the quality of cancer care available across our footprint over the past five years, including the addition of six new regional cancer centers, a new cancer treatment and research hub at Allegheny General Hospital and a new state-of-the-art cancer genomics lab” on the North Side.

The health system in 2020 recruited cancer surgeon Dr. David Bartlett to lead the institute, which now has more than 200 leading clinicians.

“Though our formal cancer partnership with Johns Hopkins has ended,” Laurent said, “our clinicians continue to collaborate with peers on the Johns Hopkins team, capitalizing on the strong relationships that have been established through our work together.”

Johns Hopkins did not return a message for comment.

AHN and Highmark Health in July 2020 unveiled a $78 million AHN Cancer Institute at Allegheny General, the centerpiece of AHN’s cancer care expansion.

At the time, officials said the cancer institute would deepen the research collaboration with Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.