MIAMI GARDENS – The Dolphins Cancer Challenge has raised more than $75 million for Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, since the ride started in 2010.
Why Sylvester?
It’s the only National Cancer Institute designated cancer center in all South Florida. It conducted 120 new clinical trials in 2023 alone. Sylvester is also home to 2,500 physicians, scientists and support staff who are saving lives daily. That’s in large part due to funding raised through the DCC.
“We have this incredible partnership that allows us to do things that no other cancer center can do. We can run programs like “Believe in You,” we can hire the brightest talent, we can have the best equipment. It allows us to recruit not only the top-of-the-line scientists and physicians, but it attracts younger, our brightest minds that are the future,” Dr. Tracy Crane said.
Cancer survivor looks forward to the “challenge”
Dr. Crane is the Director of Lifestyle Medicine and Prevention and Digital Health at Sylvester. She’s also a DCC participant. It’s something she said she looks forward to every year.
“I get to be out there with 160 survivors and their support people and be able to participate with all of them. The energy between the cyclists coming in over the finish line. Having all these people there together for the common purpose of trying to fight cancer and make things better. It’s an incredible day and an incredible moment,” she said. “If I could bottle it up, I could sell it because it’s an incredible day full of happiness and hope and talking about the future and that’s what we’re really after. The future for these survivors and making it the best it can be.”
Cancer research is about more than finding a cure
Dr. Crane’s focus isn’t just on finding a cure. It’s also on helping patients reduce symptoms, improve quality of life and make treatments work better to improve their long term outcomes.
“I would say cancer, in most cases, is not a death sentence. It’s scary and it’s a hard thing to go through. Your whole support system goes through it with you. It can be life changing. But it doesn’t mean it’s the end. There’s so much you can do and there is so much hope,” she said.
Dr. Cane said that hope is amplified through the DCC.
“This bolster of money that can come into Sylvester from something like the DCC can allow us to get to what we call pilot data. It’s the first preliminary findings that you need to then go after these larger federal grants. So, it can significantly shorten the time that we are able to get to finding an answer.”
