We are home to two of the nation's leading cancer centers: the National Cancer Institute-designated Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center of New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center (one of only four comprehensive cancer centers in New York State) and the Weill Cornell Medicine Meyer Cancer Center in Partnership with NewYork-Presbyterian.
As a major medical center, we can address all of your healthcare needs — such as other conditions like heart disease and diabetes — and connect you with the specialists you need. Our ultimate goal: to cure your cancer and maintain your quality of life.
Your Team of Cancer Experts
NewYork-Presbyterian's cancer care teams include all the specialists you need for your care: pathologists and radiologists to make an accurate diagnosis; surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, and oncology nurses to treat you; and support teams of social workers, nutritionists, psychologists, palliative care specialists, and others with compassion caring for people with cancer and their families. We understand the burden that cancer can place on your life, and we do whatever we can to lessen that burden.
Precision Medicine
Cancer care today is much more precise than it was years ago. Scientists have created targeted therapies that block the molecules that drive cancer growth. Through the Columbia Precision Medicine Initiative at NYP/Columbia and the Caryl and Israel Englander Institute for Precision Medicine at NYP/Weill Cornell, researchers and physicians are collaborating to explore the molecular basis of many types of cancer. In several of our cancer care programs, the biology of each tumor is analyzed and the results are used to choose the most effective treatment for each patient.
Immunotherapy
In the last decade, there has been a revolution in cancer treatment: finding ways to boost the power of the immune system to find and kill cancer cells. NewYork-Presbyterian is a world leader in immunotherapy. Our investigators pioneered immunotherapies that are now helping many people with cancer to live longer. We offer immunotherapy for melanoma, lymphoma, kidney cancer, breast cancer, bladder cancer, prostate cancer, head and neck cancers, some colorectal cancers, and liver cancer. Many clinical trials of new immunotherapies, alone and combined with other cancer treatments, are also available.
Access to Clinical Trials
NewYork-Presbyterian has a very active research program for people with cancer, offering access to new therapies that may not be available at other medical centers. Your treatment team will let you know if you can receive an innovative investigational treatment through a clinical trial.
Advanced Brain Cancer Treatment
The doctors in our Brain Tumor Centers use advanced techniques to treat primary and metastatic tumors that are newly diagnosed as well as cancers that came back after treatment. Through our precision medicine program, our physicians analyze the biology of your tumor and aim to choose treatments that target the molecular signals driving the growth of your cancer. Our neurosurgeons have exceptional experience removing brain tumors safely, using minimally invasive brain tumor surgery whenever possible; for example, they can remove some skull base tumors through the nostrils. We also offer to pinpoint stereotactic radiation therapy, the latest chemotherapy drugs, and access to clinical trials.
Treatment for All Stages of Breast Cancer
Our breast cancer experts are leaders in the diagnosis and treatment of all stages of the disease. We are accredited by the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC) of the American College of Surgeons, recognizing our commitment to the highest quality breast care. We offer breast conservation (lumpectomy), sentinel node biopsy, and mastectomy (including skin-sparing and nipple-sparing mastectomy)—taking an oncoplastic approach to give women excellent cosmetic results while effectively removing the cancer. We also offer superior breast reconstruction to women having a mastectomy. Our radiation oncologists offer all types of radiation therapy for breast cancer, including short-course radiation (given over just a few weeks) and partial breast irradiation (a single dose of radiation applied at the time of breast surgery). Our medical oncologists have decades of experience and access not only to conventional chemotherapy for breast cancer, but also cutting-edge targeted therapies customized to the biology of a tumor and investigational treatments in clinical trials.
Spinal Tumor Expertise
Our neurosurgical and orthopedic spine specialists care for patients with primary and metastatic spinal tumors. We take a multidisciplinary approach combining surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation therapy as indicated. Our experienced surgeons are leaders in the care and treatment of these spine tumors. They may use spinal stabilization and, in some cases, minimally invasive spine surgery to treat spinal tumors, preserving spinal nerve function and improving patients' quality of life.
Expertise in Lymphoma and Other Blood Cancers
Our doctors have helped discover and develop treatments now used to treat adult leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, myelodysplastic syndromes, and other blood cancers. They are nationally and internationally recognized leaders in the field. We know there are many subtypes of leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma; your physician carefully assesses your disease using the most advanced diagnostic and molecular profiling techniques and considers this information, along with your overall health, to choose the most effective treatment. If you need a stem cell transplant, you’ll benefit from our experience performing hundreds of these procedures each year. We also have special expertise in transplants from mismatched donors and offer approaches that reduce the risk of complications.
- Bone marrow/stem cell transplantation. For some people with a blood cancer that is at high risk of coming back, has already come back, or can no longer be treated successfully with other therapies, stem cell transplantation may be an option. We perform hundreds of stem cell transplants a year. We have advanced transplant units offering individual monitoring and special airflow systems for patients with weakened immune systems. We also have special expertise in transplants from mismatched donors and offer approaches that reduce the risk of complications.
Superior Melanoma Expertise
NewYork-Presbyterian offers the most innovative treatment for people with all stages of melanoma, including clinical trials evaluating novel immunotherapies, targeted therapies, and combination regimens for people with metastatic melanoma. Our melanoma care teams include world leaders in melanoma research and immunotherapy. Our surgeons perform cosmetically sensitive melanoma surgery, removing less tissue while achieving the same survival benefit and leaving you with a much smaller scar. Our melanoma specialists have participated in pivotal studies evaluating novel immunotherapies for advanced melanoma; you can receive immunotherapy in our modern and comfortable infusion centers. We also study the genetics of your tumor to determine if you may benefit from targeted therapy.
Treatment for Colon and Other Digestive Cancers
Digestive cancer specialists at NewYork-Presbyterian are experts in the care of patients with cancers of the colon, rectum, esophagus, pancreas, gallbladder, stomach, and anus. We offer a specialized, multidisciplinary program for patients whose cancer has metastasized to other organs. We are also pioneering a program to treat the side effects of complicated surgeries, such as incontinence after colorectal surgery. Our surgeons perform both minimally invasive and reconstructive digestive cancer surgery, such as the creation of a J-pouch in patients with colorectal cancer who undergo removal of the large intestine. Our interventional radiologists use image guidance to perform endoscopic procedures to relieve blockages in pancreatic and bile duct cancers, block blood flow to liver tumors and apply intense heat or cold to destroy tumor tissue. Your doctors choose the treatments that are best for you, such as state-of-the-art radiation therapy, the latest targeted therapies, and chemotherapy combinations, immunotherapy, or heated chemotherapy applied directly into the abdomen.
Care of Prostate and Other Urologic Cancers
Our urologic oncologists customize a treatment plan for each patient, drawing from an arsenal that includes surgery, cryosurgery, high-intensity focused ultrasound, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and targeted therapies, and immunotherapy, as well as investigational treatments through clinical trials that may be challenging to find elsewhere. Patients may benefit from our leadership in robotic urologic surgery, include robotic cystectomy (bladder removal) for bladder cancer, robotic nephrectomy (kidney removal) for kidney cancer (including partial nephrectomy to preserve kidney function), and robotic prostatectomy (prostate removal). We have a higher rate of bladder preservation than many other U.S. centers, using intravesical therapies (drugs given into the bladder) to control cancer growth. In patients for whom bladder preservation is not possible, our expert surgeons pioneered bladder reconstruction techniques—such as a "neobladder" (an internal bladder made from a portion of the intestine) or a continent reservoir (an internal bladder storage reservoir drained by passing a small tube through an opening in the abdomen).
A Leader in Liver Cancer Care
Our healthcare professionals in the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation have exceptional experience diagnosing and treating benign and malignant liver tumors and liver metastases (cancers that spread to the liver from other sites). Our surgeons perform minimally invasive liver cancer surgery whenever possible. If you have early-stage liver cancer, you may be able to have a liver transplant; if not, you may have partial removal of liver tissue to remove your cancer. We also offer direct application of chemotherapy (chemoembolization), intense heat (radiofrequency embolization), or radiation (radioembolization) directly into a tumor; interventional endoscopy to open blocked bile ducts; targeted therapies (such as sorafenib); radiation therapy; and immunotherapy.
Comprehensive Lung Cancer Treatment
Our lung cancer specialists helped to discover and develop new treatments for this disease. We treat all types and stages of lung cancer, including non-small cell carcinomas, small cell lung cancer, and mediastinal and pleural tumors, including thymoma and mesothelioma. Many people with operable lung cancer can have minimally invasive surgery with "video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy" (VATS), and our surgeons are very skilled in robotic lung cancer surgery. We also analyze your tumor for its genetic features to discover your cancer's unique "fingerprint" and choose therapies that may target the molecules driving its growth. Finally, we offer immunotherapy for lung cancer and clinical trials assessing immunotherapy plus other cancer treatments.
Care of Cervical and Other Gynecologic Cancers
We provide seamless, state-of-the-art care for women with common as well as rare gynecologic cancers — including those of the uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, cervix, vagina, and vulva. If you need surgery, we take a minimally invasive approach whenever possible, including robotic gynecologic cancer surgery. We provide targeted therapies and the latest anticancer drugs and drug combinations as well as intraperitoneal chemotherapy — anticancer drugs given directly into the abdomen or pelvis. External radiation therapy and brachytherapy (the placement of a radiation source directly on cancerous tissue) are used to treat some gynecologic cancers. If you wish to become pregnant after your treatment, we try to use therapies that spare your fertility whenever possible.
Restoring Futures for Pediatric Patients
Pediatric cancer specialists at NewYork-Presbyterian combine expertise with compassion when caring for every patient — and his or her family—who walks through our doors. We have special expertise in the treatment of children and adolescents whose disease has come back despite prior therapies — offering complex pediatric cancer surgery and all other types of pediatric cancer treatment. We perform genetic analysis of tumor tissue at NYP Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital to identify the molecules driving the growth of your child's cancer, giving us information we need to choose the best treatment. Your child may have access to new treatments not available elsewhere through our clinical trials program, including Phase I studies (the earliest stage of evaluation of a new therapy in patients). Families come to us from all over the world for our expertise.