The Fox Chase Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center research facility and hospital located in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The main facilities of the center are located on property adjoining Burholme Park. The center is an independent, non-profit institution which specializes in the treatment and prevention of cancer. The center was formed in 1974 by the merger of the American Oncologic Hospital, which was founded in 1904 as the first cancer hospital in the United States , and the Institute for Cancer Research, founded in 1927.
Today it has almost 2,400 employees and an operating budget of $281.7 million for fiscal year 2006. Research is conducted in more than 80 laboratories by a staff of more than 325 physicians and scientists who hold medical degrees, Ph.D.s or both.
Fox Chase's 100-bed hospital is one of the few facilities in the country devoted entirely to cancer care. Annual hospital admissions average about 4,100 and outpatient visits to physicians exceed 69,000 a year. As of 2007, the Fox Chase Cancer Center was ranked as the eleventh best cancer hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report .
In 1995, Fox Chase also became a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of 21 of the nation’s leading academic cancer centers.
