Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital has received a "substantial" gift to develop a center of colorectal cancer excellence.
The hospital did not share the dollar amount of the gift, though described it as "transformational" and "substantial." The new center will be known as the Susan and John Sykes Center of Excellence in Colorectal Cancer, after the philanthropists who provided the gift. It will be housed within the TGH Cancer Institute and aims to support patient care, education, and research to advance the prevention and treatment of colon and rectal cancers.
"At a time when colon cancer rates are rising in people younger than 50 and in an environment of rapid advances in cancer care, an important role of the [new center] will be to serve as a resource for the education and training of future physicians and nurses as experts in the field, and will help foster innovation in the development and improved treatment approaches for colorectal diseases in our community," Jorge Marcet, MD, medical director of colorectal surgery services at the TGH Cancer Institute and who will lead the new center, said in a news release.
The donors, who are local business leaders in the region, said they were inspired by Dr. Marcet's expertise and advances in the treatment of patients with colon cancer. Dr. Marcet supported lowering the screening age for colorectal cancer from 50 to 45.