On Mar. 24, 2020, the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern announced it had joined the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), an alliance of 30 distinguished cancer centers throughout the United States. Cancer centers at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and the Mayo Clinic are among the members of NCCN, a Pennsylvania-based not-for-profit organization.

Entrance into NCCN was the latest in a series of milestones that the Simmons Cancer Center had achieved in the last year. In June, the Simmons Cancer Center broke ground on a nine-story tower that will add 300,000 square feet for outpatient care and clinical trials. Construction started on a second three-story radiation oncology building in September.

In February, the Simmons Cancer Center was awarded more than $8.5 million in grants from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT). In all, the Simmons Cancer Center has received more than $500 million in CPRIT research funding since CPRIT was established in 2007.

Other Simmons Cancer Center research funding involves two Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) awards from the National Cancer Institute. One is in lung cancer – one of the largest thoracic oncology efforts in the U.S. – and the other is in kidney cancer, one of just two in the nation in that field. Total research funding for the Simmons Cancer Center for 2019 totaled more than $90 million, up 40 percent from five years ago.

As one of 32 cancer centers named as a National Clinical Trials Network Lead Academic Participating Site, the Simmons Cancer Center offers patients greater access to new and investigational treatments. The Simmons Cancer Center oversees approximately 3 million outpatient cases a year and has nearly 200 faculty members, including 2011 Nobel Laureate Bruce Beutler, M.D. Simmons Cancer Center members have published in many prestigious medical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Science, JAMA, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Cell.