OVERALL The Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (Sylvester) at the University of Miami seeks National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation to support its mission to reduce the human burden from cancer through research, education, prevention, and the delivery of quality patient care. Sylvester, the only academic Cancer Center located in South Florida, serves one of the most diverse catchment areas in the US. This four-county region (Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Palm Beach Counties), commonly known as South Florida, is home to more than six million residents and is characterized by substantial ethnic, cultural, racial, and socioeconomic diversity, reflected in the individuals treated by Sylvester and those affected by its outreach efforts. Led by Stephen D. Nimer, MD since 2012, Sylvester leadership has assembled a highly collaborative group of investigators that now includes 114 cancer scientists from three University Schools and Colleges. Sylvester?s research is organized into three Research Programs?Cancer Control, Cancer Epigenetics, and Tumor Biology. These programs are unified by crosscutting scientific themes and by Sylvester?s broader mission to address the cancer burden and disparities prevalent in its catchment area. Sylvester has invested heavily in these Research Programs and in four state-of-the-art shared resources that support Sylvester?s cancer researchers: the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Onco-Genomics, Flow Cytometry, and Behavioral and Community-Based Research Shared Resources. Sylvester has also invested heavily in its clinical research infrastructure, which has led to a dramatic increase in interventional treatment accruals (from 75 in 2011 to 509 in 2017), with more than 50% of the 4,568 patient accruals in 2017 representing racial/ethnic minorities. The University has made a substantial commitment to advancing Sylvester?s research capabilities since 2012, supporting the recruitment of 41 cancer researchers and doubling Cancer Center space. Sylvester has also expanded its pre- and post-doctoral training efforts across the clinical, basic, translational, and population sciences, which have been rewarded with five recently awarded NIH or NCI-funded T32 training grants, a U54 grant with a significant training component, and a Paul Calabresi K12 grant. Finally, Sylvester has invested roughly $5.7M in its Intramural Funding Program from 2014 to 2018, which has yielded $25.2M in peer-reviewed funding. Today, Sylvester has $38M in extramural research funding (including training grants), which includes $11M from the NCI; this represents a 12% and 64% increase, respectively, over the past year. These impressive achievements have created a culture and environment that enable Sylvester scientists to make valuable contributions to the understanding of cancer biology and the development of novel approaches to cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
OVERALL Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (Sylvester), the only academic Cancer Center in South Florida, plays a unique role, serving as a source of discovery and innovation in cancer research, outreach, engagement, prevention, diagnosis, treatment?and hope?for those living in its incredibly diverse catchment area. Sylvester?s Research Programs are highly collaborative; span the spectrum of basic, clinical, translational, and population science; and use technologically advanced and culturally sensitive approaches to rapidly develop, evaluate, and implement novel interventional strategies that favorably impact cancer outcomes in South Florida and beyond.
