Two of the best-known names in American medicine now share an address in Palm Beach Gardens. A new 10,000-square-foot radiation oncology center at Legacy Place, run jointly by Tampa General Hospital and Boston's Mass General Brigham, opened in September and is seeing patients. It is the first facility to open under the two systems' partnership on Florida's East Coast.

A Boston name, a Gardens address

For years, northern Palm Beach County families facing cancer have weighed whether to travel for treatment, whether to Tampa, Miami or north to the hospitals they know from the news. Mass General Brigham, the Harvard-affiliated system behind Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital, is now part of the care down the street. The center sits on Legacy Avenue in the Legacy Place area just off PGA Boulevard, a short drive for anyone from Jupiter to West Palm Beach.

The two systems first announced the project in March 2025, calling it Tampa General's first national clinical affiliation with Mass General Brigham. In January 2026 they widened the plan into a full outpatient network for Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties, a region of more than two million people. This radiation center is the first piece of that network to open its doors.

Who does what

The model is unusual, and it is worth understanding if you or someone you love is referred here. Physicians from the Cancer Center of South Florida, a practice already treating patients in Palm Beach Gardens and Palm Springs, provide the hands-on care. Tampa General runs the day-to-day operation. Mass General Brigham's radiation oncology team provides oversight of quality and safety, the kind of second set of eyes that academic medical centers are known for.

The center opened with one linear accelerator, the machine that delivers targeted radiation, and was built with room to add a second as demand grows. The center's doctors work with referring physicians and specialists across the region so that radiation fits into a coordinated plan alongside surgery, chemotherapy or immunotherapy, rather than as a separate trip.

Florida carries one of the heaviest cancer burdens in the country, with roughly 115,000 new diagnoses a year statewide, according to state health data cited by the hospitals. Radiation is often a daily treatment over several weeks, which means distance matters more than it does for almost any other kind of care. A center close to home can be the difference between a manageable routine and weeks of highway driving.

What radiation treatment looks like

For readers who have not been through it, radiation therapy is usually given in short outpatient sessions, often five days a week for several weeks. The patient lies still while the linear accelerator aims beams at the tumor from different angles, and most people go home or back to work the same day. Because the schedule is so frequent, a center that is 15 minutes away instead of an hour changes everything about how a family manages treatment, from rides and parking to time off work. That is the practical value of putting a center like this at Legacy Place.

What comes next

The partners have said the radiation center is a starting point. Their plans for the East Coast network include primary care, specialty care, advanced imaging, oncology and outpatient surgery, plus a larger Tampa General physician network across the three counties. Expect more openings to follow.

If you need it

Patients typically arrive by referral from an oncologist or primary care doctor. If you are already being treated by the Cancer Center of South Florida, ask your care team whether radiation at the new Legacy Place center makes sense for you. The practice can be reached at 561-253-3980. Everyone else can bring it up at their next oncology appointment: the question of where to get radiation in the north county has a new answer.