Sylvester is now ranked among the top 25 cancer centers in the United States and has risen to #1 in Florida, according to the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings released earlier this month. The 2026 rankings place Sylvester, which is South Florida’s only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, at #23 nationwide, up from 45 last year, and the top cancer center in Florida.
Sylvester scientists and their collaborators have uncovered a rare genetic mutation that enables some blood cancers to evade both approved Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors and newer BTK degraders. The findings , which appeared last month in Cancer Discovery , could help shape next-generation therapies for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and related malignancies. “As part of the paper, we showed that adding a different class of drug targeting the BCL2 protein to the BTK degraders can prevent the emergence of resistance," explained Justin Taylor, M.D. , Sylvester physician-scientist and study co-author.
ACCESS Study Points to Broader Stem Cell Donor Options for Blood Cancer Patients
For decades, stem cell transplantation has operated under a simple rule: the closer the donor match, the better. Patients with leukemia, lymphoma, myelodysplastic syndromes and other blood cancers often faced an extensive search for a donor whose immune system markers aligned as closely as possible with their own. Now, a study in Blood Advances suggests that rule may be evolving. Researchers found encouraging outcomes among patients who received stem cell transplants from younger, more genetically mismatched unrelated donors than have traditionally been used.
An almost $800,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health is powering a new artificial intelligence system at Sylvester that will enable researchers to examine cancer in ways previously impossible. The grant, secured by Yan Guo, Ph.D. , director of the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Shared Resource at Sylvester, funded the NVIDIA N-200 computing platform that will help scientists uncover hidden patterns in vast genomic, clinical and molecular datasets to advance precision medicine.
Sylvester Researcher Receives Grant to Study Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy
Marlon Wong, P.T., Ph.D., associate professor of clinical physical therapy at Sylvester, has been awarded a grant from Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation. The three-year, $225,000 grant will support research focused on improving quality of life for patients living with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy and other long-term effects of cancer treatment. “Even after cancer treatment ends, many patients continue to deal with symptoms that affect how they move, function and live day to day,” Wong said. “Our goal is to better understand these effects and find ways to help patients manage them more effectively.”
SURF Program Prepares Next Wave of Biomedical Researchers
This summer, 30 undergraduate students received more than just an introduction to biomedical research. They had the chance to advance it. The students were participants in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) , an immersive, 10-week program at Sylvester to provide prospective researchers with the opportunity to work alongside investigators and contribute to scientific discoveries that improve human health. Since its inception in 2017, SURF has become a highly coveted research opportunity, with more than 300 applicants vying for the 30 positions.
Many undergraduate students are only exposed to cancer research by reading about it in textbooks. At Sylvester, a novel program provides students with the opportunity to experience it instead. The program, called NEXCITE (Next-Generation Cancer Internship and Training Excellence) and modeled after the original American Cancer Society-funded internship, enables students to work in a laboratory alongside leading scientists to discover how cancer research drives better patient care.
For years, patients with lung or other thoracic cancers were treated with surgeries that required splitting open the rib cage. Now, advances in robotic surgery and minimally invasive procedures driven by innovators such as Nestor Villamizar, M.D. , are making thoracic surgery less invasive by using cameras and robots to operate through tiny incisions. Villamizar, a Sylester surgeon, talks about the advances currently reshaping his specialty.
Study Finds Younger Adults With Lung Cancer More Likely to Have Targetable Genetic Changes
Younger adults with non-small cell lung cancer are significantly more likely than older patients to have genetic alterations that can be matched with targeted therapies, according to the results of a large international study led by researchers at Sylvester. The findings, part of a collaboration with LabCorp and Dana Farber Cancer Center, will be presented in September at the 2026 World Conference on Lung Cancer in Seoul, Republic of Korea.
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