• is a world leader in image-guided therapeutics
• is a world leader in lung cancer research and treatment
• is a world leader in patient survivorship program development
• is an emerging world leader in breast cancer research
• has one of the world’s largest radiation centres under one roof
• is home to the only drug development program outside of the U.S. that is part of the NIH-sponsored Phase II consortium
• is one of only three centres worldwide participating in the structural genomics consortium (a not-for-profit organization that aims to determine the structures of medically relevant biological molecules)

What does it mean to be a major cancer centre?
As a major cancer centre, The Princess Margaret actively adheres to the following:

• Invests in research through The Campbell Family Cancer Research Institute and the Ontario Cancer Institute, focusing on basic, translational, and clinical cancer research
• Works to develop more effective approaches to improve cancer diagnoses and therapies
• Delivers state-of-the-art care and services to patients and families
• Attracts, retains and educates many top cancer healthcare professionals
• Educates the Canadian public about cancer research, cancer prevention, cancer support and treatment

The activities listed previously are supported by a long list of funding sources–federal, provincial and local–which provide grants focused on cancer research, prevention, training and education. These grants are available through a competitive process, and scientists and researchers at The Princess Margaret are very successful in attracting and retaining grants for their work.

Currently, global metrics or reporting systems that compare major cancer centres around the world are not available. To position The Princess Margaret in a global perspective, researchers specializing in cancer care were asked to specify the most advanced comprehensive cancer hospitals/centres based upon three core functions: Research, Clinical Care and Infrastructure. The five centres that had the greatest consensus among this group were:

• The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins –Baltimore, MD, U.S.A.
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute –Boston, MA, U.S.A.
• Mayo Clinic Cancer Center –Rochester, MN, U.S.A.
• MD Anderson Cancer Center –Houston, TX, U.S.A.
• Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center –New York, NY, U.S.A.

Other cancer centres of note include:

• Royal Marsden Hospital –London, England
• Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre –Melbourne, Australia
• Institut Curie –Paris, France
• National Cancer Center –Tokyo, Japan
• Karolinska Institutet –Stockholm, Sweden

The Princess Margaret completed an analysis of the comprehensive cancer care it provides using the organizations listed above as benchmarks. It was determined that The Princess Margaret is one of the top 5 cancer research centres when measured against the same criteria used for the above cancer centres. These three criteria include:

• Clinical care–measures the number of outpatient clinics, to convey the scope of the clinical program at the hospital
• Research–measures the number of citations in high-impact journals, as a percentage
• Infrastructure–measures the availability and use of advanced technology and/or techniques

The Princess Margaret:  Clinical Care
Major cancer centres work to accommodate as many patients as possible, offering clinics that focus on certain types of cancers (e.g., breast, hematology, prostate, head and neck).  When Clinical and Patient-Centred Clinics/Centres were analyzed in 2007, The Princess Margaret ranked within the top 5. The total number of patient-care centres/clinics available at each major cancer centre were as follows:

• The Princess Margaret (25)
• Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (22)
• MD Anderson Cancer Center (20)
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (20)
• The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (18)

The Princess Margaret:  Research
When a medical researcher has work published in a journal, depending on the quality and impact of the work, other researchers and medical professionals will refer to the work and cite it. The more frequently a researcher is cited in a prestigious journal, the more impact that paper has on the scientific and medical community. Being cited in a distinguished journal is paramount for a researcher and the institution where they work, as it can positively influence the importance of their research in the field.

The percentage of researchers from cancer hospitals cited in high-
impact journals was measured, and The Princess Margaret ranked in
the top 5. Below is the percentage of published papers that occur in high-impact journals (includes papers in oncology, immunology, molecular biology and genetics as well as multidisciplinary journals):

• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (21.9 %)
• Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (15.2 %)
• Mayo Clinic Cancer Center (12.6 %)
• Princess Margaret Hospital (11.0 %)
• The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center (10.0 %)