Comprehensive Cancer Center is the highest ranking awarded by the National Cancer Institute, one of the National Institutes of Health and the nation’s foremost authority on cancer.
NCI-designated cancers centers are institutions dedicated to research in the development of more effective approaches to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
Of the 67 NCI-designated cancer centers, 26 are labeled “Cancer Centers” and 41 are “Comprehensive Cancer Centers.” Cancer Centers have a primary focus and expertise in laboratory, clinical or population-based research. Comprehensive Centers meet NCI standards in all three categories and disseminate advances through professional and public education and outreach activities.
NCI-designated cancer centers must re-apply for their designation and undergo a site visit by external reviewers every five years.
In 1995, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center received its first NCI designation as a Cancer Center, the youngest cancer center to do so. In 2001, it became the first in Tennessee to gain Comprehensive status. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis became a Comprehensive Center in 2008.