New Cancer Center for a New Era of Care

New cancer center is on track to open in 2023.

Construction on the new freestanding home for Memorial Cancer Institute and Moffitt Malignant Hematology and Cellular Therapy continues and is on track for opening in late 2023.

The four-story, 121,000-square-foot facility adjacent to the Memorial Hospital West campus will allow patients to receive cancer treatments and services at one convenient location. The center will have the latest cancer therapies, advanced clinical trials and an environment that respects the needs of cancer patients and their families.

The new space also will maximize collaboration between specialists from MCI and Florida Atlantic University.

The project is made possible, in part, by the Memorial Foundation and the support of its donors, including AutoNation and Randy King.

Innovation for Lung Cancer Detection

Memorial Cancer Institute is leading the way in lung cancer care and detection with the new FDA-cleared Monarch™ Platform for robotic-assisted bronchoscopy.

Memorial is the first in the region to use the system, which integrates advanced robotics hardware and software with standard endoscopy to help diagnose lung cancers early. More than 90% of people diagnosed with lung cancer do not survive, in part because the disease has already advanced by the time it is discovered. The system was purchased through the generosity of Memorial Foundation donors.

That is the foundation of quality patient care and good outcomes, and we are proud to be the first in South Florida to offer this innovative tool to help patients who have lung nodules.”

Mark Block, MD
Chief, Thoracic Surgery

New Cancer Fellowship

Graduate Medical Education and Memorial Cancer Center now have a Hematology/Medical Oncology fellowship. With 10 fellows in 2022 and a full complement of 15 by 2023, the institute will have one of the largest fellowship programs in the state, educating cancer specialists of the future.

Patient Story: Going the Distance for Memorial Care

Leticia, who had lymphoma, with her husband.

When Leticia moved from South Florida to Las Vegas, the cancer she’d been fighting for years was in remission. When she went to a Las Vegas doctor for a throat issue, however, they discovered she had lymphoma. So she packed up her camper trailer and drove 3,000 miles back to Memorial for CAR-T cell therapy.

This highly advanced and new treatment paradigm uses a patient’s cells to develop a specialized drug that evokes an immune response against the disease — directly targeting and destroying the cancer cells.

"I have tremendous faith for the doctors at Memorial. I'm just amazed at how wonderful they are," Leticia says. "Now I feel terrific. I really do."

Saving Lives Through Research

ROS1 lung cancers affect more than 5,000 patients in the U.S., and Memorial Cancer Institute has been pioneering research to find new options to battle the disease. Memorial patients have access through clinical trials to new drugs before they reach final FDA approval. Some of the new drugs, such as repotrectenib and taletrectinib, are more potent than all other FDA-approved agents. Memorial is the only cancer center in Florida with access to them.

After a ROS1 patient had success with repotrectenib in a clinical trial, Memorial worked with the FDA to create a second trial for a patient who had gone through five other failed treatments and was out of options. Today, the second patient is doing well, and the cancer is controlled after six months on repotrectinib.