Cleveland Clinic has opened its new cancer treatment facility, the Fatima bint Mubak Center, at its Abu Dhabi location, reducing the need for patients in the United Arab Emirates and the Middle East to travel abroad for care.

The 205,000-square-foot facility is modeled after Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Center, and is equipped with 32 multidisciplinary cancer consultation rooms, 24 private infusion rooms, two procedure rooms and an area exclusively for women’s oncology services.

Among its services are screening and diagnostic testing, advanced radiation treatments, and precision cellular therapies, overseen by a team of 150 nurses, physicians and radiologists. It also will increase access to clinical trials, develop new therapies, and explore untapped areas of research, including causes of, and managing side effects of, cancer treatments, and preventing and treating young-onset cancers.

“For the first time, Cleveland Clinic will bring cancer clinical trials from North America to the Middle East,” said Dr. Stephen Grobmyer, chair of the oncology institute at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, which opened in 2015. “This will establish a foundation for patients to have access to the latest and best treatments, from early to late stages of disease.”

The facility will also offer resources for reducing psychological stress, including a healing, comforting environment for meditation and spiritual areas, a rooftop and surrounding gardens.

The healthcare system’s 4th Angel Mentoring Program will allow trained volunteers and cancer survivors to offer patients free, confidential, one-on-one advice, starting with breast cancer, the most prevalent type in the UAE, and eventually all cancer patients.

Additionally, it will have a comprehensive lifestyle medicine program, the first in the region that incorporates expertise from a lifestyle medical doctor, physiotherapist, psychologist, and in-house dietitian, as part of a cancer patient’s care. Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi oncology institute has established a patient and family advisory council, the insights of which will be included in the new cancer center to optimize services.

“Today marks the next step in fulfilling our mission to provide compassionate, complex care in the UAE,” said Dr. Tom Mihaljevic, CEO and president and the Morton L. Mandel CEO Chair of Cleveland Clinic.

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