Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKorMSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in ManhattaninNew York City. It was founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 72 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers.[3][4] It had already been renamed and relocated, to its present site, when the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research was founded in 1945, and built adjacent to the hospital. The two medical entities formally coordinated their operations in 1960, and formally merged as a single entity in 1980. Its main campus is located at 1275 York Avenue between 67th and 68th Streets in Manhattan.
Around 1910, James Ewing, a professor at Cornell University's medical college, established a collaboration with Memorial Hospital with the help and funding of industrialist and philanthropist James Douglas, who gave $100,000 (equivalent to $3.3million in 2023) to endow twenty beds for clinical research, equipment for working with radium, and a clinical laboratory for that purpose.[10] Douglas' enthusiasm and funding for development of radiation therapy for cancer inspired Ewing to become one of the pioneers in developing this treatment.[10] Ewing soon took over effective leadership of clinical and laboratory research at Memorial.[10] In 1916 the hospital was renamed again, dropping "General" to become known as Memorial Hospital for the Treatment of Cancer and Allied Diseases.[11][12]
The first fellowship training program in the U.S. was created at Memorial in 1927, funded by the Rockefellers.[13] In 1931 the then-most-powerful 900k-volt X-ray tube was put into use in radiation-based cancer treatment at Memorial; the tube had been built by General Electric over several years.[14] In 1931 Ewing was formally appointed president of the hospital, a role he had effectively played until then,[10] and was featured on the cover of Time magazine as "Cancer Man Ewing";[15] the accompanying article described his role as one of the most important cancer doctors of his era.[16] He worked at the Memorial until his retirement, in 1939.[17] Under his leadership, Memorial became a model for other cancer centers in the United States, combining patient care with clinical and laboratory research,[13] and it was said of him that "the relationship of Ewing to the Memorial Hospital can best be expressed in the words of Emerson, 'Every institution is but the lengthening shadow of some man.' Dr. Ewing is the Memorial Hospital".[10]
Memorial Hospital and the Sloan Kettering Institute (1934–1980)
In 1934, John D. Rockefeller Jr. donated land on York Avenue for a new location.[18] Two years later, he granted Memorial Hospital for the Treatment of Cancer and Allied Diseases (Memorial Hospital) $3.0million (equivalent to $65.9million in 2023) and the hospital began their move across town.[12] Memorial Hospital officially reopened at the new location in 1939.[19][20] In 1945, the chairman of General Motors, Alfred P. Sloan, donated $4.0million (equivalent to $67.7million in 2023) to create the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research through his Sloan Foundation, and Charles F. Kettering, GM's vice president and director of research, personally agreed to oversee the organization of a cancer research program based on industrial techniques.[21] The originally independent research institute was built adjacent to Memorial Hospital.[21]
From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s Chester M. Southam conducted pioneering clinical researchonvirotherapy and cancer immunotherapy at MSK; however he conducted his research on people without their informed consent. He did this to patients under his care or others' care, and to prisoners.[24][25] In 1963 some doctors objected to the lack of consent in his experiments and reported him to the Regents of the University of the State of New York which found him guilty of fraud, deceit, and unprofessional conduct, and in the end, he was placed on probation for a year.[24][25] Southam's research experiments and the case at the Regents were covered in The New York Times.[26][27][28][29][30]
In 1960, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center was formed as a new corporation to coordinate the two institutions, and John Heller, the former director of the National Cancer Institute was named its president.[31] At the end of the 1960s, as the field of pediatric oncology began seeing success in treating children with cancer, Memorial opened an outpatient pediatric day hospital, partly to deal with the growing number of cancer survivors.[32]
In the early 1970s, Burchenal and Benno Schmidt, a professional investor and trustee of MSK, were appointed to the presidential panel that initiated the U.S. federal government's War on Cancer in the early 1970s.[22]: 184 When Congress passed the National Cancer Act of 1971 as part of that effort, Memorial Sloan Kettering was designated as one of only three Comprehensive Cancer Centers nationwide.[33]
In 1977, Jimmie C. Holland established a full-time psychiatric service at MSK dedicated to helping people with cancer cope with their disease and its treatment; it was one of the first such programs and was part of the creation of the field of psycho-oncology.[34][35]
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (1980–present)
In 1980, Memorial Hospital and the Sloan-Kettering Institute formally merged into a singular entity under the name Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.[20]
In 1990 it entered an agreement with Amgen to receive royalties for recombinant granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, the basis for neupogen and neulasta, earning the institute well over $100 million.[36][37]
In 2000, former NIH director Harold Varmus became director of MSK.[38] During his tenure, he helped build new facilities, strengthened the bond between MSK's clinical and research arms, and fostered collaborations with other institutions, including Weill-Cornell Medical College and Rockefeller University.[38]
In 2010, Craig B. Thompson, an oncologist and researcher, was appointed MSK's president and CEO.[41] The following year, MSK was rated the third most successful nonprofit in terms of FDA-approved drugs and vaccines, behind the National Institutes of Health and the University of California system.[42] In 2012, Thompson appointed José Baselga as physician-in-chief, who directed the clinical side of MSK.[43] That same year, a collaboration with IBM's Watson was announced with the goal of developing new tools and resources to better tailor diagnostic and treatment recommendations for patients.[44] The director of SKI, the research arm of MSK, Joan Massagué was appointed in 2013.[45] Baselga resigned in September 2018 after information came out regarding millions of dollars he received from pharmaceutical companies without disclosing a financial conflict of interest.[46][47]
In 2015 it opened the Josie Robertson Surgery Center for outpatient surgeries, named in honor of the wife of philanthropist Julian Robertson.[48][49]
In 2020 it opened The David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care as an outpatient facility. [57]
In April 2022, MSK announced a $50 million donation from The Starr Foundation to aid in expanding funding for basic cancer research and discovery science. The donation will establish The Starr Foundation programme for Discovery Science at the Sloan Kettering Institute, the goal of the institute is to drive next-generation cancer breakthroughs.[58]
In June 2022, a small trial of an experimental treatment found that tumors vanished in all 14 patients diagnosed with early stage rectal cancer who completed the study by the time it was published.[59]
The Memorial Sloan Kettering Bendheim Integrative Medicine Center had occupied 1429 First Avenue on the corner of East 74th StreetinManhattan. The former bank was built in the 1930s by Perkins and Will as architects. It was remodeled for use by Memorial Sloan Kettering in 1997.[62]
The Center for Image-Guided Intervention was opened in June 2010 in the Memorial Hospital building to oversee image guiding activities across MSK. In October 2012, the Sillerman Center for Rehabilitation was opened, moving rehabilitation out of Memorial Hospital and closer to the Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion.[63][64]
Koch Center (right)
The New York Proton Center opened in 2019 as a partnership between Memorial Sloan Kettering, Montefiore Health, and Mount Sinai Health System. The center was the first Proton therapy center to open in New York state.[65][66] The David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center opened at 530 East 74th Street between York Avenue and FDR Drive January 2020. Perkins Eastman designed 750,000sq ft facility in collaboration with Ennead Architects, and ICRAVE.[67][68][69]Thornton Tomasetti served as structural engineer, with Jaros, Baum & Bolles providing MEP engineering.[70]
The center launched its India facility in Chennai in August 2022, to provide telemedicine services in collaboration with iCiliniq to facilitate second opinion from the cancer specialists, without the need to travel to a U.S. facility.[71]
Approximately 1,700 medical residents and Fellows are in training at MSK. There are 575 postdoctoral researchers training at MSK labs and a combined 288 PhD and MD-PhD candidates.[61]
In 2004, the Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences was opened at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.[72] The first students graduated in 2012.[73] As of January 2019, the dean of the graduate school is cell biologist Michael Overholtzer. The founding dean, serving for over a decade, was molecular biologist Ken Marians.[74]
The following individuals have served as president, first of the overarching corporation (1960–1980), and later of the combined hospital (1980 onwards).[76]
In 2015, Charity Watch rated Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center an "A".[77] That same year, heads of the charity received $2,107,939 to $2,639,669 salary/compensation from the charity. CEO Craig B. Thompson received $2,554,085 salary/compensation from the charity.[77]
^ abAbel, Emily K. (2013). The inevitable hour: a history of caring for dying patients in America. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 66–67. ISBN978-1421409191. OCLC808769549.
^Smith, Fran; Himmel, Shiela (2013). Changing the Way We Die: Compassionate End of Life Care and The Hospice Movement. Berkeley, California: Cleis Press. p. 23. ISBN9781936740604. OCLC839388370.
^ abcMukherjee, Siddhartha (2010). The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. New York. ISBN978-1439170915.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Bouton, Katherine (January 29, 1989). "The Nobel Pair". The New York Times.
^ abSkloot, Rebecca (2010). The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Crown/Archetype. pp. 127–135. ISBN9780307589385.
^ abMulford, R.D. (1967). "Experimentation on Human Beings". Stanford Law Review. 20 (1): 99–117. doi:10.2307/1227417. JSTOR1227417.