A first-person reflection by Ramon E. Parsons, MD, PhD
New York has been home to renowned cancer institutions for more than a century. Thinking of history’s long reach always puts things in perspective for me—what can we do and build and learn today that will change the next one hundred years.
When I think of a great city’s modern cancer hospital—one that serves todays needs and rises to tomorrow’s potential—I think of how it should not only serve as a destination, but it should also set standards for what patients and their families can expect during their most vulnerable moments. It is brick and mortar, machines and medicines, but the most important thing a cancer hospital can be is fundamentally human: a space where excellent clinical outcomes and a compassionate patient experience are not mutually exclusive, but inseparable.
The Tisch Cancer Hospital represents the next chapter in cancer care for Mount Sinai and New York. In the last twenty years, we have undergone a significant transformation from a model that resembled a collection of individual practices to a coordinated cancer center with genuine multidisciplinary collaboration. Over the last decade, we have established centers of excellence across various cancer types so patients can benefit from cohesive teams. This ongoing commitment to quality and coordination has gained national recognition, including The Mount Sinai Hospital's ranking among the top programs for cancer care and our attainment of the prestigious National Cancer Institute designation as a Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2025.
What marks this moment in the arc of history is an improved ability to treat cancer and our capacity to continually reshape what is possible. Over the past 40 years, I have witnessed first-hand the significant strides we have made in understanding cancer. In the early 1980s, our knowledge of cancer growth and development was still in its infancy. When I was a medical student, we didn’t know which genes or viruses were responsible for causing cancer. Many important discoveries since then have laid the foundation for current therapy, for example, immunotherapy and therapy targeting oncogenes have transformed the treatment landscape for multiple types of cancer. This research represents not just scientific achievements but also returns valuable time—birthdays, graduations, and everyday moments—to patients and their families.
A capital project like the Tisch Cancer Hospital aims to translate these scientific discoveries into bedside care more reliably and equitably. From a career in cancer medicine, I know well that buildings themselves do not cure cancer, but they can help reduce obstacles to care. Although cancer presents a significant challenge to human health, it is our collective responsibility and desire as a society to mitigate this problem as much as possible.
When teams are located together, it makes coordinated decisions easier, such as escalating or de-escalating a situation, pivoting strategies, or prioritizing comfort. Designing inpatient oncology units allows us to safely deliver complex therapies, manage complications, and integrate essential supportive services— nutrition, rehabilitation, social work, and behavioral health—without treating them as mere afterthoughts. Additionally, when the care environment is designed to prioritize privacy and calm, we can have the difficult conversations that these situations demand, treating them with the respect they deserve.
At the Tisch Cancer Hospital, we are approaching the patient journey the way we approach a clinical pathway—deliberately and end-to-end. This includes how we welcome patients, accommodate families, communicate across shifts, and reduce the cognitive load on individuals already carrying too much. Technology must also serve the goal of making care more human. We are also building a hospital that can support the next generation of cancer medicine through digitally enabling clinical trials, data-driven learning from every patient encounter, and more precise matching of therapies to tumor biology. Every time I describe the facilities, features, or technologies we are constructing, it always comes back to the overarching purpose, which is acknowledging and addressing the impact of cancer on our community.
Importantly, the Tisch Cancer Hospital is being built not as a singular destination, but as the visible center of a distributed enterprise. It does not function like a freestanding cancer center; a place focused solely on cancer. It is a healthy ecosystem where specialized care and expertise work in tandem, because our other biological and psychological needs don’t stop or take a back seat when there’s a cancer diagnosis. Likewise, patients often want treatment closer to home and should receive excellent care without feeling they must commute across the city at every step. At Mount Sinai we have the breadth and depth so that expertise travels through shared protocols, tumor boards, second opinions, clinical trial pathways, and coordinated referrals. In my view, the future of cancer care in New York will be defined by a balance between a flagship destination that sets standards and a network that makes those standards attainable and accessible.
When I look ahead, I see three imperatives that the Tisch Cancer Hospital will help us fulfill. First, we must continue to raise the ceiling on what is treatable by advancing rigorous science, accelerating translation, and having the courage to test ideas responsibly and boldly. Second, we must keep the patient at the center of every operational decision, because a technically “successful” treatment that leaves someone isolated, exhausted, or unheard is not a standard we will accept. Third, we must train the next generation of physicians, nurses, scientists, and staff who will carry this work forward with both excellence and humility. The Tisch Cancer Hospital will be a place where those imperatives come together. Ultimately, the Tisch Cancer Hospital is a commitment to our community, made concrete.
