Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center Rises to No. 1 in Florida and No. 23 in the Nation
A steady commitment to expanding research, advancing cancer care and improving outcomes has elevated Sylvester in this year’s U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals rankings.
As director of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of UHealth—University of Miami Health System, Stephen D. Nimer, M.D., has led a sustained effort to strengthen every aspect of the cancer center, from recruiting world-class physicians and scientists to advancing research, expanding clinical trials and enhancing patient care.
That commitment to continuous improvement is reflected in Sylvester’s rise to No. 23 in the nation for cancer care, up from No. 45 a year ago, making it the No. 1 cancer program in Florida, according to U.S. News & World Report. Sylvester’s progress reinforces UHealth’s national reputation for highly specialized, academically driven medicine.
For Dr. Nimer, professor of medicine, biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the Oscar de la Renta Endowed Chair in Cancer Research, those rankings are not the goal. They are the result of years of progress and countless achievements across research, education and clinical excellence. As South Florida’s only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, Sylvester continues to build on that momentum while helping shape the future of cancer care. We met with Dr. Nimer to speak about Sylvester’s rise.
What does academic medicine mean for our patients?
Academic medicine means patients are receiving care from physicians and physician-scientists who are experts in their diseases and are actively defining the future of cancer treatments and preventive strategies, not simply reading about it after the fact.
At Sylvester, our physicians are leading clinical trials, publishing discoveries, developing new therapies and helping establish national standards of care. Because research and patient care are fully integrated, our patients often gain access to promising treatments years before they become widely available.
Academic medicine also means every patient benefits from an environment of constant innovation, rigorous scientific inquiry and a hunger for achieving better outcomes. Our goal is not only to deliver the best treatment available today, but to help create the treatments of tomorrow.
What distinguishes your program’s approach to caring for patients with complex conditions?
Every patient is unique, and every cancer presents distinct clinical and personal challenges. That is why our approach begins with understanding each individual patient, not just their diagnosis. Cancer care is more effective than ever, but also more complex to deliver.
Precision medicine is embedded throughout our cancer program. Through advanced molecular profiling, genomic testing and multidisciplinary evaluation, we can identify therapies that are tailored to the specific biology of a patient’s cancer rather than relying solely on traditional treatment approaches.
As South Florida’s only NCI-designated cancer center, we are very focused on multidisciplinary care, bringing together specialists across diseases and disciplines to ensure each patient benefits from the full breadth of expertise, technology and clinical trial opportunities available across Sylvester. That personalized approach is especially important for patients with rare, aggressive or treatment-resistant cancers.
How has your team built or evolved a multidisciplinary model, and what has that collaboration unlocked for patients?
Cancer care has become far too complex for any one specialty to operate in isolation. At Sylvester, multidisciplinary care extends well beyond physicians meeting to discuss cases.
Patients benefit from collaboration among medical oncologists, surgeons, radiation oncologists, pathologists, radiologists, genetic counselors, pharmacists, advanced practice providers and supportive care specialists, all experts in their related fields. Equally important, our clinicians work alongside laboratory scientists, computational biologists and translational researchers who are advancing new discoveries every day.
We have intentionally organized many of our efforts around disease-focused clinical programs and luminary scientific teams that bring together expertise across the research and clinical spectrum. This structure accelerates discovery, improves coordination of care and shortens the time required to translate promising scientific findings into new patient treatments.
What advances in treatment, technology or clinical care are having the biggest impact on patients right now?
The most transformative advances today are occurring at the intersection of precision medicine, cellular therapies, immunotherapy and data science.
We can now characterize cancers at an unprecedented level of detail, allowing us to match patients with therapies that target the specific molecular drivers of their disease. At the same time, advances in immunotherapy and cellular therapies are producing remarkable outcomes for patients whose cancers previously had few effective treatment options, including many cures.
Equally exciting is our ability to integrate genomic, clinical and imaging data to make more informed treatment decisions. These advances are helping us move toward a future where cancer care is increasingly personalized, more effective and less burdensome for patients.
What unique resources, expertise or capabilities do we offer that benefit patients in ways they may not find elsewhere?
As South Florida’s only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, Sylvester offers a combination of scientific expertise, clinical specialization and research infrastructure that is unique in our region. There are also numerous treatments that are only available at NCI-designated cancer centers, which allows us to serve a unique and critical role for our community.
Patients have access to nationally recognized programs across multiple disease areas, including brain tumors, pancreatic cancer, multiple myeloma and other complex malignancies where specialized expertise can make a meaningful difference. They also benefit from South Florida’s only Phase 1 Clinical Trials Program, providing access to first-in-human and early-stage therapies that are often unavailable elsewhere.
Beyond treatment, we are deeply committed to survivorship and whole-person care. Our support extends across the entire cancer journey, including prevention, early detection, treatment, survivorship, supportive services and long-term follow-up care.
One of the most impactful initiatives has been our commitment to integrating precision oncology into routine patient care.
Through comprehensive molecular profiling and genomic analysis, our teams can identify targeted therapies, clinical trials and treatment strategies that would not have been possible just a few years ago. A great example of this has been our participation in a national study of a new drug for treating pancreatic cancer. The study showed that the RAS-targeting drug, daraxonrasib, was extremely effective, doubling the survival of the patients who received it. The drug is not yet FDA-approved, but we have opened an expanded access protocol that has allowed us to begin treating dozens of patients with RAS mutant pancreas cancer.
What is the one initiative currently underway at Sylvester that you believe will define the next chapter of patient care?
The next chapter of cancer care will be defined by our ability to seamlessly connect scientific discovery, precision medicine and clinical care, and that is exactly what we are building at Sylvester.
We have created disease-focused scientific neighborhoods, such as in the new Griffin Cancer Research Building at Sylvester, which allows us to bring researchers and clinicians together in ways that accelerate collaboration and speed the translation of discoveries into patient benefit.
The goal is not simply to conduct more research. The goal is to create an environment where breakthroughs move more quickly from the laboratory to the clinic, so patients have earlier access to innovative therapies and where every treatment decision is increasingly informed by the unique biology of an individual’s cancer. Ultimately, I believe the future belongs to cancer centers that can unite world-class science with world-class patient care, and that is the future we are building at Sylvester.
More from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
Researchers found that younger adults with lung cancer are more likely to carry targetable genetic alterations.
Undergraduate students gain hands-on biomedical research training, mentorship and career preparation through Sylvester’s SURF Program.
NEXCITE gives undergraduate students hands-on cancer research experience, mentorship and career training at Sylvester.
A new AI computing platform at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center helps researchers analyze complex cancer datasets.
Tags: cancer research, Dr. Stephen D. Nimer, immunotherapy, Kenneth C. Griffin Cancer Research Building, pancreatic cancer, precision medicine, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Sylvester’s Survivorship and Supportive Care Institute, U.S. News rankings, USNWR27