Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) is the world’s oldest and largest privately operated center devoted to prevention, patient care, research and education in cancer. The prototype of the National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers, MSKCC has two operating organizations: Memorial Hospital, which provides inpatient and outpatient care, specialized and support services, and a broad program of clinical research; and the Sloan Kettering Institute, with some 75 laboratories dedicated to biomedical investigation which are part of the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. Programs of basic and clinical research at Memorial Sloan Kettering aim to advance the understanding of cancer, and to improve the means for its prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
Research at the Sloan Kettering Institute is organized into five major areas: Molecular Biology; Cell Biology; Cellular Biochemistry and Biophysics; Immunology; and Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics. More than 20 different clinical research programs are conducted under the auspices of Memorial Hospital. The close collaboration between the Center’s scientists and clinicians facilitates the rapid translation of results from the laboratory to the patient’s bedside. MSKCC is developing techniques to identify and monitor people at increased risk for cancer, providing tests to diagnose the disease in its earliest stages, and leading studies to assess promising avenues of cancer prevention. An innovative outpatient facility, Memorial Sloan Kettering-64th Street, opened in 1992 and is situated apart from the main campus, yet nearby. Its Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center and Iris Cantor Diagnostic Center provide the latest high-technology diagnostic services for all types of cancers and medical and non-medical needs of breast-cancer patients.
The Breast Examination Center of Harlem (BECH), located at 163 West 125th Street and affiliated to MSKCC, provides free breast and cervical-cancer screenings, counseling, support groups, patient-education materials, and referral services to women in Harlem.
In 1996, MSKCC acquired The Stella & Charles Guttman Breast Diagnostic Institute, located at 55 Fifth Avenue near 13th Street, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. The Memorial Sloan Kettering Guttman Diagnostic Center now offers prevention and early detection of breast, gynecological, prostate, and skin cancers. The Memorial Sloan Kettering Counseling Center, which opened in 1996 at 1246 Second Avenue and 65th Street, is an outpatient facility to help cancer patients of all ages cope emotionally with their disease and treatment and later to adjust to life after cancer. The Clinical Genetics Service counsels people who report a family history of multiple cases of breast, ovarian, colon, endocrine, skin, or other cancers. Its staff collects and analyzes detailed family, medical, and lifestyle histories, assesses individual cancer risks, and discusses with patients and relatives their options for prevention and for early detection.
To facilitate international collaboration, MSKCC has established oncology programs in alliance with hospitals in Switzerland, Greece, Brazil, Spain and Turkey. MSKCC has also joined forces with hospitals in Westchester County, Long Island, and New Jersey to provide people in these communities with access to the Center’s world-renowned cancer care closer to home.
The Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion at Memorial Sloan Kettering 53rd Street, located at 160 East 53rd Street at Third Avenue, opened in 1999. It offers outpatient radiology and chemotherapy services, as well as patient education and prevention, screening, and “wellness” programs for people at risk of developing cancer. Also launched in 1999 was Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Integrative Medicine Program, which enhances patients’ and family members’ quality of life through healing regimens that address the body, mind and spirit.
Originally established in 1884, Memorial Hospital has been affiliated with Cornell University since 1914. Many staff members of Memorial Hospital and the Sloan Kettering Institute hold faculty appointments either in the Medical College or in the Graduate School of Medical Sciences, which offers doctoral degree programs through the Sloan Kettering Division. MSKCC is a major resource for the Medical College, offering students clinical instruction and research opportunities. Center facilities provide unparalleled instruction in the pathology, diagnosis, and treatment of neoplastic disease.