Tampa General Hospital and USF Health Named Cancer Center of Excellence in Florida

March 24, 2026 |

8 min read

State designation builds on TGH Cancer Institute's national accolades and marks a significant milestone.

TAMPA, Fla., March 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Tampa General Hospital (TGH) Cancer Institute, in partnership with the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, earned the state's designation as Cancer Center of Excellence in recognition of its excellence in quality, comprehensive and innovative patient-centered care.

The designation, awarded by the Florida Department of Health after a thorough review by the Florida Cancer Control and Research Advisory Council and members of the Biomedical Research Advisory Council, celebrates academic institutions and hospitals that exceed service standards and excel in providing quality, comprehensive and patient-centered care and cancer research.

"Patients in the fight for their lives choose Tampa General Hospital and its Cancer Institute for world-class cancer care. The designation of the TGH Cancer Institute as a Cancer Center of Excellence is a testament to our academic-rooted and patient-centered approach, cross-collaboration of our teams, access to cutting-edge treatments and therapies and our ability to provide patients the best possible chance at the best possible outcome," said John Couris, president and CEO of Florida Health Sciences Center | Tampa General Hospital. "Congratulations to the leadership of the TGH Cancer Institute, the care teams who deliver the exceptional care, and the researchers whose breakthroughs helped earn this well-deserved recognition."

"The designation reflects the power of academic medicine to provide the best care," said Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, executive vice president of USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine. "The cutting-edge care we provide at the TGH Cancer Institute is a wonderful example of how academic health systems are better equipped to provide the kind of care that saves more lives – and studies show that patients treated at an academic medical center have a 20% higher rate of survival," Dr. Lockwood said. "We have the multidisciplinary

collaboration and top-level expertise in place that can provide the most advanced care to even medically complex patients with the most difficult cancer diagnoses." Dr. Lockwood also serves as executive vice president and chief academic officer at Tampa General.

"Here at the TGH Cancer Institute, patients with cancer benefit from compassionate care, state of-the-art clinical research and innovative therapies that not only improve patient outcomes, but contribute to a better quality of life," said Eduardo Sotomayor, MD, vice president at Tampa General Hospital, executive director of the TGH Cancer Institute and co-leader of the application that led to this designation by the state of Florida.

"We're proud to have earned the designation as a Cancer Center of Excellence. We will continue to build on the successes the Institute has achieved over the past five years, expanding access to all that we offer at the TGH Cancer Institute to reach more patients and save more lives," said Thomas Rutherford, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Gynecological Oncology and professor in the Morsani College of Medicine as well as deputy director of the TGH Cancer Institute and principal investigator of the Cancer Center of Excellence application.

The official state designation as a Cancer Center of Excellence adds to the long list of national accolades the TGH Cancer Institute has earned in recent years. The Institute — one of Florida's few cancer centers backed by academic medicine through its partnership with the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine — ranks among the nation's top 10% for cancer treatment by U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals 2025-2026. It holds accreditations from the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer, the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI), the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers from the American College of Surgeons, the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy for excellence in stem cell and cellular therapy, and the American Society for Radiation Oncology Program for Excellence. The Institute is a member of the Association of American Cancer Institutes, recognized for leadership in research, treatment, education and outreach, and was named among Newsweek's America's Best Cancer Hospitals.

The Cancer Center of Excellence designation is a significant milestone toward the TGH Cancer Institute's long-term goal of obtaining a designation from the National Cancer Institute, which recognizes centers around the country that meet rigorous standards for transdisciplinary, state-of-the-art research focused on developing new and better approaches to preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer.

Tampa General is home to world-renowned cancer surgeons with decades of surgical experience who are active in cutting-edge clinical trials. Patients at the TGH Cancer Institute have access to state-of-the-art diagnostic tools and ground-breaking research.

The Cancer Center of Excellence designation was established by the Florida Legislature in 2013 to promote excellence in cancer care and attract and retain the best cancer care providers in the state. The Cancer Control and Research Advisory Council and members of the Biomedical Research Advisory Council developed rigorous standards, a rating system and a rating standard to evaluate hospitals, treatment centers and providers. Only seven cancer centers in the state have achieved the status of a Cancer Center of Excellence.

ABOUT TAMPA GENERAL HOSPITAL

Tampa General Hospital, the Tampa Bay region's only academic health system, is a 1,530-bed not-for-profit network of hospital and outpatient services spanning across Florida. As the only center for Level I trauma and a comprehensive burn care center serving 23 counties, Tampa General delivers world-class care. The system's hospitals include Tampa General Hospital, Tampa General Rehabilitation Hospital, Tampa General Behavioral Health Hospital, all in Tampa; Tampa General Brooksville, Tampa General Spring Hill and Tampa General Crystal River. Tampa General is the highest-ranked hospital in Tampa Bay in U.S. News & World Report’s 2025-2026 Best Hospitals, with six medical specialties ranking among the top 50 in the nation and five additional medical specialties ranked among the top 10% best hospital programs in the United States. As the first hospital in Florida to open a clinical command center for real-time situational awareness, the academic health system has elevated its digital care coordination center to the next level by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and its analytics platform across inpatient and outpatient care to ensure patients receive leading-edge care as quickly and safely as possible. Tampa General's commitment to growing and developing its team members is recognized by three prestigious Forbes magazine rankings — in the 2025 America’s Best Large Employers, ranked as the Tampa Bay region's #1 employer in the health care category for the fifth year in a row, and among the top five in the state of Florida, in the 2025 Best Employers by State and the 2023 America’s Best Employers for Women.

Tampa General is the area's safety-net hospital, caring for anyone regardless of ability to pay; in fiscal year 2024, Tampa General provided a net community benefit of approximately $289.1 million in the form of health care for underinsured patients, community education and financial support to community health organizations in Tampa Bay. It is recognized as one of the adult solid organ transplant centers in the nation and is the primary teaching hospital for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. With five medical helicopters, Tampa General transports critically injured or ill patients from surrounding counties to receive the advanced care their conditions require. Tampa General has a nationally accredited comprehensive stroke center and its 32-bed Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit is the largest on the West Coast of Florida. It is home to the Muma Children's Hospital at TGH, the Jennifer Leigh Muma 82-bed neonatal intensive care unit and a nationally accredited rehabilitation center. Tampa General's footprint includes TGH North, which consists of three hospitals and several outpatient locations in Citrus and Hernando counties; 17 Tampa General Medical Group Primary Care offices; TGH Family Care Center Kennedy; two TGH outpatient centers; TGH Virtual Health; and 20 TGH Imaging outpatient radiology centers throughout Hillsborough, Pasco, Pinellas and Palm Beach counties. Tampa Bay area residents receive world-class care from the TGH Urgent Care, powered by the Fast Track network of clinics. To see a medical care professional live anytime, anywhere on a smartphone, tablet or computer, visit Virtual Health | Tampa General Hospital (tgh.org). For more information, go to www.tgh.org.

About USF Health

USF Health is dedicated to making life better through research, education and patient care. It is the partnership of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Public Health, the Taneja College of Pharmacy, the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences, the Biomedical Sciences Graduate and Postdoctoral Programs and USF Health's multispecialty physicians' group, the largest on Florida's west coast. In 2025, U.S. News & World Report ranked the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine as the No. 1 medical school in Florida and in the highest tier nationwide for research. U.S. News also ranked the USF College of Public Health and the USF College of Nursing's Master of Science program No. 1 in the state. Together with Tampa General Hospital, USF Health forms one of the nation's premier academic health systems, with more than 1,000 physicians and providers caring for more than one million patients each year. USF Health is part of the University of South Florida, a top-ranked research university and member of the Association of American Universities (AAU). USF serves approximately 50,000 students and generates nearly $10 billion in annual economic impact for Florida. For more information, visit health.usf.edu.