A leader in cancer management, Orlando Health Cancer Institute has been providing exceptional and compassionate care for more than 40 years. Its flagship location is the Charles Lewis Pavilion, a facility with 90 private inpatient beds dedicated to oncology patients, with 23 clinics located throughout central Florida. In total, there are 7 treatment locations including 6 regional cancer centers. “The original 1 location footprint could not meet the demands of our communities and patients,” explained Alyssia Crews, MBA, assistant vice president of the oncology service line at Orlando Health Cancer Institute. “We worked closely with our system strategy and finance teams to create a growing footprint of care locations with the goal of bringing care closer to home.”

The multidisciplinary cancer program contains all services needed for care—from diagnosis through all phases of treatment and follow-up. The team is made up of subspecialized surgical oncologists, hematologists, medical and radiation oncologists, pathologists, radiologists, nurses, therapists, advanced practice providers, and researchers.

Bringing Innovative Technology to the Community

Since its beginning in 1983 as the Orlando Regional Medical Center for Cancer Treatment, Orlando Health Cancer Institute has treated more than 100000 patients a year. “We measure our success 1 patient at a time,” commented Crews. “When you choose Orlando Health Cancer Institute, you can be sure you are getting the most innovative and advanced treatments and technologies.”

In 2016, the institute opened the $25 million Marjorie and Leonard Williams Center for Proton Therapy—the only 1 of its kind in Central Florida and 1 of 5 in the state. It allows the targeting of tumors with higher doses of radiation while significantly reducing damage to healthy tissue. More recently, Orlando Health Cancer Institute was nationally recognized in 2024 by US News & World Report as the best regional hospital in the Orlando metropolitan area and as a high-performing hospital in leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma and in lung, colon, and gynecological cancer surgery.

The institute has a new bone marrow transplant (BMT) and cellular therapy program that uses autologous and allogeneic BMT to treat adult blood cancers (eg, leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma). The program targets high-risk patients including those with comorbidities such as heart disease or uncontrolled cancer.

Also at Orlando Health Cancer Institute is the Cancer Genetics and High-Risk Care Center—the only 1 of its kind in central Florida—that focuses on patients identified as being at high risk for breast and other cancers by personal history, family history, or genetic testing. In this program, patients work closely with an oncologist and genetic counselor to build a roadmap for the future; this care plan includes surveillance, a risk-reduction plan, and lifestyle changes.

Promoting Patient Education Through Community Outreach

As Florida is the third largest state in the US and Orlando is one of its largest and fastest-growing metropolitan areas, there is a particularly high rate of cancer incidence—especially for skin cancer. “Demand is growing throughout central Florida with no signs of slowing down, and we are faced with creating additional access points and ease of access to get patients seen in clinics within their communities,” Crews explained. Multiple areas that historically were not dense have experienced rapid growth, resulting in increased travel times to locations that used to be perceived as being close to home. To combat this population growth, Orlando Health Cancer Institute is increasing subspecialty care disbursement throughout communities to make sure patients do not have to travel far for high-quality care.

The program includes a robust team of community relations representatives who work closely with the referring providers to assess needs and gaps in care. “This ongoing work allows us to recruit for the communities to ensure we are meeting their specific needs,” said Crews.

In addition, the institute’s Navigation and Community Outreach teams are continually immersed in the communities through screening, education, and special events to enhance their presence and ensure that all patients and referring providers are aware of the access points available to them. These teams collaborate with other nonprofit and community organizations to create pathways to educate, screen, and appropriately refer patients for care.

Unique Supportive Care Services

In terms of supportive care, Orlando Health Cancer Institute offers a wide array of services that complement medical treatments for patients who are in the hospital setting or who visit clinics on an outpatient basis. These include everything from psychosocial oncology and music therapy to yoga, meditation, and creative arts. Most services are free of charge and available at nearly all locations, but these services are not typically covered by insurance. Orlando Health Cancer Institute is actively working with its patient and family advisory council to brainstorm ways to deploy these services to reach more patients. Nutrition, social work, counseling, chemotherapy information, acute visits, navigation, and financial counseling are all offered virtually as well. Unique to the institute is the Arts in Medicine program, which allows patients who receive infusion therapy to participate in creative arts while receiving treatment. Also located in the flagship location is a labyrinth modeled after the one at Chartres Cathedral in France. Orlando Health Cancer Institute is the second hospital in the country to offer a labyrinth to patients as a form of walking meditation and calming exercise.

Improving the Standard of Care Through Clinical Trials

A team of 30 dedicated members make up the clinical trial staff, including the senior director of operations, regulatory and research coordinator management staff, the site activation leader, and disease site research coordinators. The Research and Clinical Trials Program focuses on trials designed to assess a wide range of cancer-fighting options and strives to improve patient outcomes through use of medications and other therapies, genetics, diet, and better screening. Investigators participate in multiple research studies that contribute to the ultimate approval of novel agents to treat different types of cancer. Orlando Health Cancer Institute was the first in the country to open an expanded-access protocol using tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy for metastatic melanoma. Currently, the institute is participating in 229 clinical trials, with continual increases in accruals.

Two new systems were implemented in 2024 to enhance Orlando Health Cancer Institute’s clinical research enterprise. The first, a paradigm for artificial intelligence-assisted clinical trial identification of potential patients in the electronic health record, is based on clinical trial criteria for active research at the institute. Phase 2 of this implementation involves using patient data to identify potential trial opportunities to open within the community. “It has been an incredible addition,” said Crews, “resulting in a 30% increase in identifying patients that we were missing with human chart-review. This allows for our research coordinators to have a list of potential patients for them to screen and get in front of the physicians faster and more efficiently.” This program has already translated into identifying additional patients and approaching them about trial consent.

Also in 2024, Orlando Health Cancer Institute implemented OnCore (Advarra) as its clinical trial management database. OnCore is a highly recommended tool for National Cancer Institute–designated oncology programs that allows for better transparency and management of trials.

A Program Built on Innovation

Over the past year, Orlando Health Cancer Institute has continued to expand its multidisciplinary cancer program to all regional sites. The breast team implemented Enhanced Care After Diagnosis (ECAD), a strategy for treating the whole, newly diagnosed patient with an extra layer of psychosocial oncology, integrative medicine, and financial counseling at the start of their breast cancer journey. In 2025, there are plans to expand ECAD to all clinic locations. In addition, Orlando Health Cancer Institute implemented subspecialty programming throughout the community; this includes a reflux and hiatal hernia program and onco-endocrinology at 2 additional regional locations. The institute also launched several innovative programs to the community in 2024: tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy, Thynk (Thynk Health) to better identify lung nodule incidentals and access lung cancer screening, and Ethos (Varian Medical Systems) to provide adaptive radiation oncology treatment.

By working closely with Orlando Health primary care and Hospital Care at Home, the institute successfully launched cancer services at home initiatives including home injection and direct admit to hospital at home from outpatient infusion, which save oncology patients from unnecessary hospital and emergency room exposure. Continued work includes fast pass to oncology follow-up appointments after discharge and improvement of the breast patient pathway from abnormal screening results to procedure and oncology workup.

With close collaboration between Orlando Health Cancer Institute’s strategy, innovation, and clinical teams, staff members constantly strive to identify opportunities in the industry that allow the provision of cutting-edge, high-quality patient care. “I am continually wowed by our system’s investment and interest in being highly innovative and at the cutting edge of care in all communities,” Crews emphasized. “We are excited for the coming years and what else we can bring to our patients.”