Tisch Cancer Institute

The Tisch Cancer Institute (TCI) at Mount Sinai is a vital component of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and part of the Mount Sinai Health System, which encompasses eight member hospital campuses across the New York City metropolitan area. Established in 2008 through the generosity of James and Merryl Tisch, TCI was built upon Mount Sinai’s history of distinguished achievements in cancer research and treatment.

In 2015, TCI became an NCI-Designated Cancer Center. The institute’s mission is to advance basic, clinical, and population health cancer research, in order to prevent cancer in healthy individuals and improve the lives of people with cancer and their families in its diverse communities.

Research at the Tisch Cancer Institute

To accomplish this mission, TCI has four research programs:

1. Cancer Immunology: Identifying the mechanisms underlying the suppression of antitumor immunity in order to inform development of effective immunotherapies
2. Cancer Mechanisms: Understanding the biology of cancer cell development and proliferation, and identifying possible therapeutics that target biological pathways
3. Cancer Prevention and Control: Reducing the burden of cancer incidence, mortality, and disparities in cancer risks and outcomes
4. Cancer Clinical Investigation: Developing new treatment approaches to cancer by translating discoveries into therapeutic trials

The institute supports five shared resources to facilitate research: Flow Cytometry, Mouse Genetics, Microscopy, Biostatistics, and most recently, the Human Immune Monitoring Center. TCI also supports a robust infrastructure for cancer clinical trials (with 30% minority accrual) and includes an Early Phase Trial Unit. The institute is also enhancing resources related to tissue biorepositories, bioinformatics, and analysis of biomedical data.

Select Scientific Initiatives at the Tisch Cancer Institute

The institute serves patients in the New York City metropolitan area. TCI’s cancer research programs are focused on the needs of its population, which includes extensive research in liver, prostate, breast, bladder, and lung cancers, as well as multiple myeloma.

Some of TCI’s accomplishments include:

• creating a sophisticated atlas of the immune cell microenvironment in lung cancer, which allows researchers to determine how well a cancer therapy could activate a patient’s immune system
• developing new cancer vaccines and supporting new pharmacological strategies, relying on research-informed insights into the immune system
• conducting studies on cell biology and tumor progression, which advanced understanding of how immature stem cells age and identified a novel mechanism of tumor metastasis
• documenting increased cancer incidence among World Trade Center first responders, helping to expand cancer health care for these workers
• conducting lung cancer screening research and initiatives, which led to expanded Medicare coverage of lung cancer screening
• collaborating with other cancer centers to conduct clinical trials that led to the FDA approval of seven different drug combinations and indications for treatment of multiple myeloma

* This profile was provided by the Tisch Cancer Institute.