Stephen Nimer, Director, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

In an interview with Invest:, Stephen Nimer, director of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, discussed how the center is advancing cancer treatment by encouraging precision medicine and multidisciplinary care. He also outlined how a $50 million donation from Ken Griffin will have a transformative impact on the center’s work, including reaching out to underserved communities.

What developments have strengthened the center over the past year?

2023 marked Sylvester’s 50th anniversary. Our cancer center has grown in both size and excellence, and it is having a greater impact than ever before on our community. This year, we renewed our National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation, which is significant because Sylvester remains the only NCI-designated cancer center in South Florida. With this designation, we offer treatments that are only available at NCI-designated centers, like the phase 1 program for testing new drugs, which is available for both children and adults here. This makes Sylvester incredibly valuable to our community.

In 2024, we began building a $250 million cancer research facility. In May, we celebrated a $50 million donation from Ken Griffin. As someone who grew up in Chicago, I enjoyed learning that he too made the decision to relocate his company to Miami, and am thrilled he chose to support Sylvester. This reflects Miami’s appeal and sends a powerful message about the center’s credibility. Last year, we raised a total of $93 million in philanthropy, which showcases a new mindset in South Florida and a strong community commitment to building a high-quality healthcare center.

What impact do you anticipate the $50 million dollar donation having on your top priorities, and how will it help mitigate the challenges of rising healthcare costs?

There are several components to consider in this question of the Ken Griffin gift. As a doctor, my primary focus is on curing patients or getting them into remission. With advancements in treatment, we aim to improve outcomes by going from 20% of people being cured to 40% or even 60%.

The investments we make are directed toward improving the effectiveness of treatments. If you have three treatment options for lung cancer, we need to determine who should receive options A, B, or C. Precision is key. Investing in personalized care helps us save both time and money. When patients receive the wrong treatment initially, they lose time, and additional treatments become necessary. Effective treatment from the start helps reduce costs significantly.

Additionally, many medications are now available as oral pills instead of intravenous therapies. When treatment is administered intravenously, patients need a nurse, a hospital bed or chair, and hours of supervision. With oral medication, patients may have more flexibility in their schedule to be home with family, to work, or tend to other needs, and oral medication does not require staff or facilities, which leads to significant savings.

Another critical aspect of philanthropy is that it helps us attract top talent. In any industry, people are the most valuable asset. The NCI designation we received is also instrumental. Many researchers and doctors prefer working at NCI-designated institutions. This designation raises the quality of our workforce, attracts more patients, and allows us to compete not just in South Florida, but also with major centers in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The philanthropic support we receive also signals to researchers that the community is fully behind their work.

What are the notable trends in cancer research or patient treatment, especially regarding multidisciplinary care?

One important trend is that cancer patients now have better survival rates than ever before. This progress is partially due to innovative treatments and our survivorship program. Today, there are 18 million cancer survivors in the United States, which is 5% of the population. This signifies a new opportunity for us to prioritize long-term survivorship, particularly for diseases like lung cancer, where patients were not typically living for extended periods post-diagnosis.

We are learning a great deal from our efforts to keep cancer survivors healthy, and this knowledge benefits everyone in the community. For instance, obesity remains a significant challenge, with links to cancer recurrence. Our nutrition and physical activity services, through our lifestyle medicine program, are helping reduce cancer risk and prevent recurrence, which is invaluable for both cancer patients and the general public.

Also, cancer care is increasingly complex. In the past, you could travel somewhere to see a surgeon, and then consult other specialists separately. Now, coordinated, multidisciplinary care is critical. The timing and synchronization of treatments improve outcomes significantly. For example, we aim to provide all components of cancer care in one place to make it easier for patients and to ensure that every part of their treatment plan is in sync.

How are you reaching underserved communities across South Florida given that anyone can get cancer, but not everyone has access to treatment?

We employ several strategies to address that. First, we have a diverse workforce, including physicians and nurses who reflect the community. We translate our materials into Spanish and Haitian Creole, which is something that few other cancer centers do. We also have native speakers of Portuguese, Russian, and other languages, which makes patients feel more comfortable.

It is essential to recognize that while South Florida has significant wealth, it also has higher poverty rates than the rest of Florida and the United States. Many people do not know how to access healthcare services, so we are able to bring the services to them. We have Game Changer vehicles that travel to areas like Little Haiti, Little Havana, Overtown, Liberty City, and Monroe County, providing education, cancer screenings, and other services.

Our partnership with the Jackson Health System is another vital aspect. Jackson is a safety-net hospital, ensuring all that people can access top-tier care. Patients treated by University of Miami doctors at Jackson receive the same care they would at Sylvester.

We also collaborate with community organizations, such as Federally Qualified Health Centers, and have established a large community advisory committee.  We engage with the American Cancer Society Leukemia Lymphoma Society, and many others to ensure that everyone has access to cancer care.

What do you think the future of healthcare careers will look like?

Healthcare has evolved a lot over the past decade, and it is going to change tremendously from now on as well. For example, my lab focuses on epigenetics, and we have built a large research team at the university, which I think is truly fascinating and crucial, especially for younger audiences. 

We visit high schools to inspire students about careers in healthcare and science aiming to engage them early on because if science is not engaging, students might not see themselves in these fields. That is why we make it exciting and accessible by letting kids watch scientists at work behind glass walls as this helps them imagine pursuing similar careers.

What are your top priorities and goals for the next two to three years?

As both a doctor and a researcher, I focus on making breakthroughs that can impact lives in both the short term and the long term. Some of the work I have done over the years is starting to show results, and that is incredibly rewarding. In the near term, two major priorities are survivorship and precision medicine. We are building interdisciplinary teams and evolving them to address these areas. One of the most exciting developments is early cancer detection through blood tests and other methods. The goal is to identify cancers in healthy individuals before they show any symptoms. Although the technology is not yet fully developed, it is improving rapidly, and we are investing heavily in it.

We are also focusing on hereditary predispositions to cancer. If someone has a family history such as breast cancer or leukemia, we aim to guide them on the best course of action. This research is crucial in providing people with effective strategies for prevention and early intervention.