Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine stands as the only NCI-Designated Cancer Center in South Florida. With 13 locations across its four-county Catchment Area (CA), Sylvester provides access to advanced cancer diagnostics, treatments, and community-responsive health care. Sylvester’s mission is to reduce the human burden of cancer through research, education, prevention, and the delivery of quality patient care. 

Research at Sylvester

Sylvester earned its NCI designation in 2019 and has become an integrated program for patient care, education, and research with a reputation for excellence. The center has expanded to more than 150 members and recently opened the Kenneth C. Griffin Cancer Research Building, a 12-story, 244,000-sq ft facility that houses both cutting-edge research laboratories and patient care spaces to foster collaboration and accelerate clinical translation. 

Sylvester is organized into four highly collaborative, multidisciplinary research programs: 

• Tumor Biology investigates how cancers arise, progress, and resist treatment, aiming to develop new therapeutic approaches that target the biological and molecular features of cancer cells.
• Cancer Epigenetics focuses on how changes in gene regulation, such as DNA and RNA methylation, histone modifications, and non-coding RNAs, drive cancer development and progression, with the goal of uncovering molecular mechanisms, reprogrammed transcriptional networks, and therapeutic targets for improved diagnosis and treatment.   
• Translational and Clinical Oncology transforms laboratory discoveries into innovative cancer treatments by identifying biomarkers and drug targets, developing precision medicine and immunotherapy strategies, and fostering collaboration between scientists and clinicians to improve patient outcomes.
• Cancer Control seeks to reduce cancer incidence and improve outcomes by studying risk factors and designing novel interventions, driven by local cancer statistics, through interdisciplinary research, community engagement, and advanced technologies.

To foster inter-programmatic collaboration, Sylvester has advanced five cross-cutting themes: Cancer Risks and Outcomes; Interdisciplinary Research and Technology; Aging and Cancer; Infection and Cancer; and Metabolism and Cancer. These themes are highly CA-relevant and are structured to transcend individual research programs. 

These programs are supported by six shared resources, recognized by the NCI: Behavioral and Community-Based Research, Biospecimen, Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Cancer Modeling, Flow Cytometry, and Onco-Genomics. Together, they drive high-impact science across the cancer continuum, from discovery to clinical application. 

Select Scientific Initiatives at Sylvester

Community engagement is central to Sylvester’s scientific mission, driving CA-relevant research through tools like SCAN360, a web-based platform that maps cancer incidence and risk factors across the region, and initiatives such as the Game Changer Vehicles and Consent to Contact registry. Through Sylvester’s Office of Outreach and Engagement (SOOE), residents are connected to cancer education, screening, and research opportunities, ensuring that the CA needs directly inform Sylvester’s scientific priorities, including its focus on four disproportionately prevalent cancers: gastrointestinal cancers, hematological malignancies, hormone-related cancers, and infection-associated cancers. 

As the only NCI-designated cancer center in South Florida, Sylvester offers the region’s only academic Phase I clinical trials program and participates in more cancer research studies than any other institution in the area. Sylvester is also a proud member of the NCI’s Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN), contributing nationally through multiple investigator-led trials and approved early-phase concepts. 

Through Sylvester’s Office of Education and Training (SOET), Sylvester offers the highly sought-after Design and Management of Clinical Cancer Trials course. This course is designed in collaboration with Sylvester’s Clinical Research Services leadership and provides essential information to foster better clinical trial design, advance clinical research programs, and ultimately improve patient care. The course has attracted more than 1,500 national participants each year. SOET also supports programs that introduce high school and undergraduate students to cancer research, inspiring the next generation of scientists whose contributions will help reduce the cancer burden. 

* The information on this cancer center profile was provided by the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.