New York, NY, Oct. 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Center (TCC) has been named a “Comprehensive Cancer Center” by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the highest designation awarded to cancer centers in the United States. This recognition places Mount Sinai among the top one percent of cancer centers nationwide and affirms the breadth and depth of its cancer research, clinical excellence, and commitment to health equity. The designation also brings more than $3 million annually to support Mount Sinai’s research and innovation.
Founded in 2008, The Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Institute first received NCI “Clinical Cancer Center” status in 2015. After a decade of growth in research, clinical trials, and community outreach, Mount Sinai became eligible to apply for Comprehensive Cancer Center designation in 2024. The elevation to this status reflects Mount Sinai’s remarkable trajectory, which also includes The Mount Sinai Hospital’s ranking as No. 6 nationally for cancer care by U.S. News & World Report and Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Center’s position as No. 11 in the country for National Cancer Institute research funding.
Through advances in translational science, multidisciplinary collaboration, infrastructure investment, and a focus on equity in cancer care, Mount Sinai positioned itself to meet NCI hallmarks of a designated Comprehensive Cancer Center: “added depth and breadth of research” and “substantial transdisciplinary research.”
“This designation is a testament to the dedication and brilliance of our faculty, staff, students, and patients,” said Ramon E. Parsons, MD, PhD, Director of The Tisch Cancer Institute and Dean for Cancer Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “It affirms Mount Sinai’s role not only as a place of scientific discovery but as a leader in bringing those discoveries to our patients.”
“Receiving the Comprehensive Cancer Center designation from the NCI is a pivotal moment,” said Eric J. Nestler, MD, PhD, Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “It underscores our sustained investment in cancer science, our commitment to training the next generation of investigators, and our promise to improve cancer care not just here in New York, but nationally and globally.”
Researchers at TCC have led transformative studies across a wide spectrum of cancers, advancing treatments that are changing standards of care worldwide:
- Bone Marrow Transplantation - James Ferrara, MD, and John Levine, MD, pioneered a safer approach for patients with acute graft-versus-host disease, replacing toxic steroids with the targeted therapy itacitinib, helping patients avoid severe side effects.
- Blood Cancers - John Mascarenhas, MD, and colleagues have achieved major breakthroughs, recently reporting the first randomized phase 3 trial of JAK inhibitor-based combination therapy in treatment-naïve myelofibrosis patients. The therapy resulted in robust clinical benefit, including statistically significant spleen response, improved symptom control, and favorable changes in bone marrow, pointing to the possibility of modifying the disease course itself.
- Multiple Myeloma - Sundar Jagannath, MD, and colleagues established the promise of ciltacabtagene autoleucel, a CAR-T cell therapy targeting B-cell maturation antigen. Results from the CARTITUDE-1 trial revealed that a third of patients remained cancer-free for five years, a milestone in this hard-to-treat cancer. Building on this success, new therapies such as linvoseltamab, a dual-targeting antibody treatment under priority review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), have shown response rates as high as 71 percent, further extending hope for patients with relapsed disease.
- Bladder Cancer - Matthew Galsky, MD, led pioneering trials resulting in the FDA approval of adjuvant nivolumab to prevent recurrence in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer following surgery. Dr. Galsky and colleagues combined chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and organ-sparing strategies, enabling 42 percent of patients to achieve complete remission, and allowing one-third to preserve their bladders long term.
- Cancer Vaccines - Nina Bhardwaj, MD, PhD; Mansi Saxena, PhD; Jonathan Anker, MD, PhD; Dr. Galsky, and colleagues launched an innovative study pairing atezolizumab with a personalized neoantigen vaccine (PGV001) in urothelial cancer. At nearly three years of follow-up, patients showed both durable responses and emergence of vaccine-specific T cells, proving that personalized immunotherapy is safe and feasible. TCI investigators advanced personalized vaccine science across multiple cancer types and launched the first-in-human study of PGV001, a multipeptide neoantigen vaccine platform, in patients with solid and hematologic malignancies at high risk of recurrence.
- Solid Tumors - Miriam Merad, MD, PhD, and colleagues identified an IL-4 signaling pathway that drives tumor growth and showed that blocking it with dupilumab induced durable responses in patients resistant to standard therapies. In breast cancer, Joseph Sparano, MD, developed RSClin, a clinical-genomic tool that helps oncologists determine when chemotherapy is necessary, reducing overtreatment while maintaining survival. And in lymphoma, research led by Joshua Brody, MD, revealed that the combination of epcoritamab and the chemotherapy regimen GemOx produced deep and lasting remissions in patients with high-risk disease who lacked transplant options.
Together, these studies highlight the scientific excellence, innovation, and patient-centered focus that underpin Mount Sinai’s recognition by the National Cancer Institute as a Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“This recognition places Mount Sinai among the nation’s leaders in cancer discovery and care,” said Brendan G. Carr, MD, MA, MS, Chief Executive Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System, and Professor and Kenneth L. Davis, MD, Distinguished Chair. “Mount Sinai’s leadership in leading-edge trials, translational science, and community-engaged prevention efforts has earned this hard-won recognition. We are grateful for the work of so many: researchers, clinicians, staff, and our patient partners who have made this possible.
“This designation raises the bar for what we can achieve,” Dr. Carr added. “We will continue striving for breakthroughs that change lives and bring hope to patients everywhere.”
This designation is supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number P30CA196521.
About the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is internationally renowned for its outstanding research, educational, and clinical care programs. It is the sole academic partner for the seven member hospitals* of the Mount Sinai Health System, one of the largest academic health systems in the United States, providing care to New York City’s large and diverse patient population.
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai offers highly competitive MD, PhD, MD-PhD, and master’s degree programs, with enrollment of more than 1,200 students. It has the largest graduate medical education program in the country, with more than 2,700 clinical residents and fellows training throughout the Health System. Its Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences offers 13 degree-granting programs, conducts innovative basic and translational research, and trains more than 560 postdoctoral research fellows.
Ranked 11th nationwide in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is among the 99th percentile in research dollars per investigator according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. More than 4,500 scientists, educators, and clinicians work within and across dozens of academic departments and multidisciplinary institutes with an emphasis on translational research and therapeutics. Through Mount Sinai Innovation Partners (MSIP), the Health System facilitates the real-world application and commercialization of medical breakthroughs made at Mount Sinai.
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* Mount Sinai Health System member hospitals: The Mount Sinai Hospital; Mount Sinai Brooklyn; Mount Sinai Morningside; Mount Sinai Queens; Mount Sinai South Nassau; Mount Sinai West; and New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai.
About the Mount Sinai Health System
Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with 48,000 employees working across seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and a leading school of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it.
Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care solutions from birth through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes approximately 9,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 10 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals, Best in State Hospitals, World Best Hospitals and Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2025-2026.
For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.
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