On Oct. 26, 2009, the Smilow Cancer Hospital opened for patient care with María Rosa Menocal, a Yale professor, as the first patient. She learned that summer that she had a rare mucosal melanoma in the base of her nose, and was visiting the radiation oncology clinic, the first service to move in, for radiation treatment. 

Today, all of the hospital’s 12 cancer programs are fully operational and hundreds of patients have been treated. Smilow Cancer Hospital consolidates all of Yale’s cancer services, both inpatient and outpatient. It is affiliated with Yale Cancer Center, southern New England’s only comprehensive cancer center designated by the National Cancer Institute, and one of only 40 in the United States; and Yale Medical Group, the full-time faculty of the Yale School of Medicine.