South Nassau Hospital gets Feil charitable donation for cancer center in Oceanside

South Nassau Communities Hospital said it has received a $1.75 million gift that will be put toward opening a cancer center at its main campus in Oceanside.

The money was granted by the Louis Feil Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, which South Nassau said has given more than $8.45 million to the hospital in the past several years.

The new cancer center could open in three to five years, said Dr. Rajiv Datta, chairman of the department of surgery and director of cancer services at South Nassau. 

The $1.75 million donation was the largest gift the hospital received in 2018, South Nassau officials said.

“It is very gratifying for my family and me to see the gifts made by our family’s Trust invested for the sole benefit of the patients that turn to South Nassau for the care they need to fight a cancer diagnosis,” Jeffrey J. Feil said in a statement. “South Nassau is my hospital and it is my honor to support their mission.”

Feil and his parents, the late Gertrude and Louis Feil, have been lifelong residents of Rockville Centre. Feil serves as president and CEO of The Feil Organization, a family-owned real estate investment, development and management company based in Manhattan.

The hospital is also expanding cancer care through Manhattan-based Mount Sinai Health System, which South Nassau joined last year. By aligning itself with Mount Sinai's Tisch Cancer Institute, South Nassau said its patients will have access to "cutting-edge clinical trials and leading physicians." 

Datta said South Nassau's relationship with Mount Sinai helps it take care "of all cancer patients. If the care is more advanced, they go to Tisch, but the simple follow-up appointments can be handled here. Also, Mount Sinai experts are spending time here."

In 2018 South Nassau added services for liver cancer and expanded its staff of medical oncologists. An infusion center was opened at the Oceanside hospital’s main campus in 2017.

South Nassau operates the Gertrude & Louis Feil Cancer Center in Valley Stream, while a range of other services are located at the hospital and at satellite facilities along Nassau County's South Shore. The Valley Stream location would remain open once the new facility in Oceanside is built, Datta said.

Health systems throughout Long Island are building out their cancer care services. 

For instance, Manhattan-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center plans to open a 114,000-square-foot facility at the Hub in Uniondale in April, and Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center in West Islip said it plans to open a cancer center at its hospital later this year.

Stony Brook Medicine recently opened a 240,000-square-foot cancer center located on Stony Brook University’s East Campus.

New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health earlier this year said it had revamped the clinical leadership in its cancer care unit. The health system appointed three deputy physicians-in-chief to lead medical, surgical and radiation oncology across the 23-hospital health system.

There were 18,000 new cases of cancer per year on Long Island, on average, from 2011 through 2015, according to the most recent data available from the state Department of Health. 

South Nassau said it treats about 1,500 cancer patients annually.