PROJECT SUMMARY: OVERALL
As the only NCI-designated Cancer Center in South Florida (SoFL), the University of Miami’s Sylvester
Comprehensive Cancer Center (Sylvester) has continued to advance its mission to reduce the human
burden from cancer through research, education, prevention, and the delivery of quality patient care,
while serving one of the most diverse catchment areas (CA) in the US. Sylvester’s clinical, research, and
community outreach and engagement activities are focused on its four-county CA (Broward, Miami-Dade,
Monroe, and Palm Beach counties), home to more than 6.2 million residents with substantial ethnic, cultural,
racial, and socioeconomic diversity. Since earning NCI designation in 2019, Sylvester has grown considerably
in size and scope, promoting team science and translational research, based on its 2019-2023 Strategic Plan.
Center membership has grown from 114 to 148 due to external recruitment and the successful engagement of
new members from across the University. This strategic expansion allowed Sylvester to launch its
Translational and Clinical Oncology Research Program (RP) in 2022, joining the Cancer Control, Cancer
Epigenetics, and Tumor Biology RPs. Four cross-cutting themes integrate Sylvester’s RPs and activities to
address the cancer burden in its CA: cancer disparities and health equity, inclusion and interdisciplinary
research, aging and cancer, and infection and cancer. Based on its 2019-2023 Strategic Plan, Sylvester has
made major investments in two highly translational developing Shared Resources (Cancer Modeling and
Biospecimen), clinical research infrastructure and investigator-initiated studies, and its education and training
programs. To further transdisciplinary team science, the $250M Transformational Cancer Research Building
will open in 2025, more than doubling Sylvester’s cancer research footprint (adding 100,000 sq ft of lab space).
Sylvester currently has $27.9M of peer-reviewed cancer funding and $21.9M of non-peer-reviewed funding,
totaling $49.8M of direct cost, extramural research funding, plus $4.1M in active training grants. The Center
has increased its overall NCI funding to $14.8M as of 05/31/23 ($12M excluding training grants), and Sylvester
members have more than tripled their high-impact publications (JIF ≥ 10) over the reporting period. In the next
funding period, Sylvester is committed to 1) fostering collaborative and transdisciplinary science, 2) expanding
its clinical research capabilities, 3) broadening its translational research, 4) enhancing its community outreach
and engagement, 5) supporting effective education and training, 6) expanding global oncology, 7) promoting
diversity, equity and inclusion and 8) enhancing its research infrastructure. Sylvester’s trajectory can be traced
to its strategic investments in people, processes, and infrastructure. Renewal of the CCSG will allow Sylvester
to continue to serve as a powerful, sustained influence on cancer research, patient outcomes, and public policy
in SoFL and beyond.