ABOVE: Red dots are cancer centers, blue are comprehensive cancer centers, and orange are basic laboratories.
NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE
After a six-year commitment and a $250 million investment, the University of Miami Medical School’s Sylvester Cancer Center recently became the 71st National Cancer Institute “designated” center. The NCI bestows the label on institutions that “meet rigorous standards for transdisciplinary, state-of-the-art research focused on developing new and better approaches to preventing, diagnosing, and treating cancer.” With only eight centers in 1972, the program now includes virtually every major cancer research center in the US; making it a defacto national strategy for organizing cancer research.
This is unfortunate. The goal may be rhetorically satisfying, but the reality is different. The program has evolved into a nationwide branding exercise, mostly signifying grant-writing endurance and adherence to metrics that skew scientific priorities and place centers in organizational straight jackets. University leaders, fundraisers, hospital executives, and ...
