Florida Panthers players visit patients at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

Every day, the doctors and researchers at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Health System, work to save the lives of cancer patients. But it’s not every day that these patients are visited by some of their hometown hockey heroes, the Florida Panthers.

To help advance cancer prevention and treatment efforts in South Florida, the Panthers have partnered with Sylvester to present Hockey Fights Cancer every November. This year, the month kicks off with a hockey game against the New York Rangers featuring a puck drop by a young survivor of acute myeloid leukemia.

During their recent visit to Sylvester, Panthers players also toured Sylvester’s lymphoma lab. Here, researchers are working to model human cancers to advance our understanding of these diseases and develop more successful treatment options.

“We hope to find a day when we can cure all cancers. Just in the last year, we’ve made incredible progress with lots of new drugs,” said Dr. Stephen Nimer, director of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Part of the message also to get out in the community is about cancer prevention. We’d much rather prevent a cancer from occurring than have to treat people once they’ve got it.”

Tags: Dr. Stephen Nimer, Florida Panthers, lymphoma, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center