Over the last year, there have been significant advancements in cancer care and research – numerous new treatments have been approved by the FDA or have entered clinical trials, researchers made significant progress in the development of immunotherapies, and the President and Vice President’s Cancer Moonshot initiative was started.
Here in South Florida, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has led the way in bringing those national initiatives to our community. In June, South Florida’s only cancer center of excellence announced the inauguration of the Sylvester Pancreatic Cancer Research Institute, led by renowned pancreatic researcher Ashok K. Saluja, Ph.D. Dr. Saluja has been conducting cutting-edge research into the causes of pancreatic tumors for more than 30 years and, most recently, has been focused on developing new treatments for pancreatic cancer. One of the potential drugs he is developing for pancreatic cancer is currently in Phase I clinical trials.
The Lennar Foundation Medical Center
Just a few weeks ago, Sylvester opened a suite of cancer-related services at the brand-new Lennar Foundation Medical Center on the UM campus in Coral Gables. The Lennar Foundation Medical Center is a model for future health-care delivery — a conveniently located facility where patients are treated as individuals with a superior patient experience and transformational medical care.
Early in 2016, Sylvester celebrated 500 stem cell transplants in patients with blood cancers; a number that has since increased to more than 600. One of the largest programs in the county, the Sylvester Adult Stem Cell Transplant Program was established at the cancer center in 2011 and is led by Krishna V. Komanduri, M.D., who is also president-elect of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.Together with UHealth – the University of Miami Health System and the Miller School of Medicine, Sylvester announced in October the establishment of a pioneering Department of Interventional Radiology. Interventional radiology is a specialty that cuts across different disciplines, with the ability to treat nearly every organ in the body with minimally invasive, targeted treatments. The chair of the department is Govindarajan Narayanan, M.D., who has built the Division of Interventional Radiology at the Miller School for the past 11 years. A professor of interventional radiology, Dr. Narayanan has been a pioneer in the minimally invasive therapy and has led many of the specialized clinical applications in interventional radiology that are now offered to patients at Sylvester.
$50 Million from The Pap Corps Champions for Cancer Research
Sylvester has made significant progress in its fundraising efforts. In November, the cancer center announced it has received a $50 million pledge from The Pap Corps Champions for Cancer Research targeted toward saving lives by funding cancer research. Sylvester’s Deerfield Beach location in Broward County, which is set to begin a major renovation and expansion in 2017, will be dedicated as “The Pap Corps Campus” in honor of the gift, which was one of the largest made to a cancer center in the nation this year.
Another key differentiator for Sylvester is clinical trials. No other cancer center or hospital in South Florida offers more clinical trials than Sylvester, offering hope to cancer patients who have failed other treatments. This year, the cancer center initiated a groundbreaking trial with CAR-T cells, which are a genetically engineered version of the patient’s own T cells, an important component of the immune system, to recognize lymphoma cells and attack them in a way that mimics the way the immune system fights serious infections.
Better Patient Outcomes
All of the progress being made in the quest to fight cancer at Sylvester has a single purpose – to improve cancer patient outcomes. A 2015 study conducted by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that patients who are treated at a handful of dedicated cancer centers in the nation, including Sylvester, have a 10 percent higher chance of survival than at nearly any other cancer center in the nation.
For cancer patients, it makes a difference where they choose to be treated. Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center is the only academic cancer center in South Florida, the only cancer center that conducts research and offers the latest technologies combined with clinical trials and multidisciplinary teams of cancer experts. This comprehensive suite of services and care is what makes Sylvester unique in the region and it makes all the difference in the lives of cancer patients.
