The Sharett Institute of Oncology at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem is a world leader in cancer prevention, treatment and research. In addition to serving the population of greater Jerusalem, it is a referral center nationwide and attracts patients internationally.
Sharett Institute is a national institute that treats more than 3,500 new patients each year.
The intimate and extensive collaboration between the researchers at the Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Medicine and the clinicians at the Sharett Institute generates patient-centered, innovative therapies and groundbreaking cancer research.
And, while caregivers focus on optimizing treatment by utilizing the most innovative methods available, the Sharett Institute is widely recognized as a center for compassionate care, profoundly concerned with the individual emotional needs of each and every patient. Patients may be included in international clinical trials and in testing of cutting-edge cancer treatments. The oncology department at Hadassah Ein Kerem is the first in Israel to offer genomic mapping to all of its cancer patients as of January 2021. State-of-the-art computing gives doctors unique insights into the tumor development for each oncology patient.
In 2020, Hadassah Medical Organization proudly welcomed Prof. Aron Popovtzer, a world-renowned radiation oncologist, as the new director of the institute. A Hadassah-Hebrew University School of Medicine graduate, Prof. Popovtzer specializes in ENT (ear, nose and throat), oncology and radiotherapy. He pursued further specializations in head and neck cancer at the University of Michigan and at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York, where he became a leading expert in brachytherapy, a treatment in which radioactive implants are inserted directly into cancerous tissue.
Prof. Popovtzer is the principal investigator of a new Israeli therapy called DaRT — diffusing alpha-emitters radiation therapy — to cure skin, oral, breast and pancreatic cancers. The new treatment is laser focused and eradicates the tumor cells but spares the surrounding healthy tissue. The DaRT study he is currently leading at Hadassah will later be implemented at hospitals across the globe, including New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“It is more effective than other radiation,” Prof. Popovtzer explains. “This is definitely an exciting treatment.”
Prof. Popovtzer has already published the first results on the feasibility and safety of DaRT
in the prestigious Journal of Radiation Oncology.
As featured in the 2020 Hadassah Annual Report, released in July 2021.