Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center Renewed

The Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center of Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital has received an $18 million, five-year Cancer Center Support Grant from the National Cancer Institute. The grant renews the center’s status as one of only two NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers in New York City and one of only three in New York state.

The cancer center’s recent growth has included the recruitment of a number of prominent physicians and researchers (40 overall during the last NCI funding period), including the center’s director, Stephen G. Emerson, MD, PhD, who joined Columbia in 2012. In its assessment, the NCI praised Dr. Emerson, the Clyde’56 and Helen Wu Professor of Immunology and professor of microbiology & immunology, for his leadership.

The cancer center has more than 250 members drawn from six Columbia schools, 12 core facilities, and eight research programs. The center’s investigators have more than $120 million in NIH and NCI research grants. The productivity of its programs is reflected in the 3,000 plus research publications authored by its members in the last NCI funding cycle. Some 33 percent of these papers are co-authored by investigators across different programs and laboratories, demonstrating the cancer center’s strong culture of teamwork and interdisciplinary collaboration.