Historical Timeline

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Learn more about Memorial Sloan Kettering’s history in this timeline, beginning with its founding in 1884.

1800s

1884 – On May 31, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is founded as New York Cancer Hospital at 106th Street and Central Park West in Manhattan. New York Cancer Hospital is the first institution in the United States devoted exclusively to the treatment of cancer.

1887 – New York Cancer Hospital, a 70-bed facility, receives its first patients on December 7.

1893 –William B. Coley is appointed as an attending surgeon. One of the American pioneers in modern clinical research, Dr. Coley developed an early form of immunotherapy in which he treated sarcoma with the toxins of a bacterial skin infection to induce the body’s immune system to target and destroy tumors.

1899 – The original name of the hospital is changed from New York Cancer Hospital to General Memorial Hospital for the Treatment of Cancer and Allied Diseases.

1900-1924

1902 – Mrs. Collis P. Huntington gives $100,000 to General Memorial Hospital in memory of her husband to establish the first cancer research fund in the country, which gave a new impetus for treatment and research.

1902 – Just two years after the discovery of X-rays, Memorial Hospital pioneers their use in cancer therapy.

1912 – James Douglas, a scientist and philanthropist, gives $100,000 to General Memorial Hospital for the endowment of ten beds for clinical research work, and the equipment for an X-ray plant and clinical laboratory.

1913 – James Ewing is appointed as a pathologist at Memorial Hospital. Under his guidance and with his subsequent appointments as Director of Cancer Research and President of the Medical Board, Memorial Hospital attains worldwide recognition in the diagnosis and management of tumors and other lesions caused by the abnormal proliferation of cells in the body.

1915 – Dr. Ewing, working with Dr. Douglas, establishes a radium department and lays the foundation in the United States for radiation therapy.

1916 – The name of the hospital becomes Memorial Hospital for the Treatment of Cancer and Allied Diseases.

1919 – Dr. Ewing publishes the first edition of Neoplastic Diseases: A Text-Book on Tumors. The book, which is translated into numerous languages, becomes a cornerstone of modern oncology by establishing a systematic and comprehensive basis for diagnosing human cancer.

1920 – Memorial Hospital establishes the first radiation research laboratory in the United States.

1921 — Marie Curie, the co-discoverer of radium who won Nobel Prizes in both physics and chemistry, visits Memorial Hospital during a tour of the United States.

1925-1949

1927 – Memorial Hospital establishes the nation’s first fellowship training program. Within a decade, Memorial Hospital trains fellows who come from about 30 states and 20 countries.

1931 – The General Electric Company loans the hospital a 700,000-volt X-ray machine, and the hospital erects a building to accommodate the equipment.

1939 – Memorial Hospital moves from its original location to its current location on the Upper East Side, between 67th and 68th Streets and First and York Avenues, on land donated by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. The new building includes the first and only ward in the world for children with cancer.

1939 – A one-million-volt x-ray machine, then the largest of its kind for treating cancer, is installed at Memorial Hospital.

1940 – Elise Strang L’Esperance, a pathologist at Memorial Hospital, along with her sister, May Strang, founds the Kate Depew Strang Cancer Prevention Clinic, which becomes a prototype for cancer detection clinics throughout the United States. The success of the clinic, originally housed within Memorial Hospital, leads to the construction of a separate building adjacent to the hospital in 1947.

1945 – Philanthropist and industrialist Alfred P. Sloan and inventor and industrialist Charles F. Kettering join forces to establish the Sloan Kettering Institute, which today is the basic research arm of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

1946 – Teams of investigators, including those from Memorial Hospital and Sloan Kettering Institute, report that the nitrogen mustards developed as chemical warfare agents can be used effectively against certain forms of cancer. The findings lead to the development of chemotherapy as a treatment for cancer.

1947 – Through a gift of $4,000,000 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the 13-story Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research opens. Devoted solely to the study of cancer, the structure is Sloan Kettering Institute’s first laboratory building and is the largest private cancer research facility in the world.

1950-1974

1950 – The Helena Woolworth McCann Children’s Pavilion, which more than doubles the bed capacity for children at Memorial Hospital, opens.

1952 – A new compound, called 6 MP, capable of inducing remissions in more than half of children suffering from acute leukemia, is developed at Memorial Sloan Kettering in collaboration with investigators from Wellcome Research Laboratories.

1954 – Memorial Hospital and Sloan Kettering Institute pioneer the application of computers to radiation treatment planning, and start the first computerized treatment plan program in the country.

1957 – A Sloan Kettering Institute researcher discovers a virus in mice that causes rapidly progressive leukemia, adding to the evidence that viruses cause some forms of cancer.

1959 – Research on immunotherapy accelerates when Sloan Kettering Institute scientists, using microbial products, successfully prevent and treat cancer in mice.

1960 – To more efficiently and effectively apply advances in the laboratory to the treatment of patients in the clinic, Memorial Hospital and the Sloan Kettering Institute incorporate to become Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

1964 – Sloan Kettering Institute’s research program and capabilities are significantly expanded with the dedication of the Kettering Laboratory, an 11-story building furnished with state-of-the-art equipment.

1967 – The computerized radiation therapy treatment planning service, pioneered in 1954 by Memorial Hospital and Sloan Kettering Institute, is extended with the inauguration of a coast-to-coast computer treatment planning program. Memorial Hospital begins using the first-of-its-kind system, and – by means of computers and teletype machines – treatment plans could be transmitted to other hospitals within 15 minutes.

1969 – Memorial Sloan Kettering opens the world’s first Pediatric Day Hospital to care for children and young adults with cancer on an outpatient basis, allowing them to return home on the day of treatment.

1971 – Surgical researchers devise a method for preserving the viability of donor livers for transplant, improving the portability of donor organs and leading to an increase in the number of potential donors.

1971 – Congress passes the National Cancer Act. With the Act’s implementation, Memorial Sloan Kettering is one of only three institutions in the country to be designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center, charged with translating laboratory research results into clinical practice.

1973 – The new 19-story Memorial Hospital opens. It consists of single and double rooms, and enables the hospital to provide the highest quality care to all patients. The hospital is designed so that nearly each floor is a self-contained unit equipped to handle most patient-care needs.

1973 – Our physicians are involved in the first bone marrow transplant from an unrelated donor to a patient. This opens the possibility of a transplant to the majority of patients who do not have a sibling who is a bone marrow match.

1975-1989

1976 – Memorial Sloan Kettering scientists develop a method for detecting tumor-specific antigens in some types of cancer – information that is essential for developing specific tumor vaccines.

1976 – The largest collection of human tumor cell lines in tissue culture is established at the Sloan Kettering Institute.

1977 – Memorial Sloan Kettering becomes the first cancer center to establish a full-time psychiatry service devoted solely to treating psychiatric and psychological problems unique to cancer patients, training young psychiatrists and psychologists in these issues, and conducting clinical research. Having pioneered the development of psychiatry in the oncology setting, the department serves as the first and largest national resource for training and research in psychiatric oncology.

1977 – The Arnold and Marie Schwartz International Hall of Science for Cancer Research, a research facility designed to enable investigators to focus on the cells and tissues of the human body, opens.

1979 – The Breast Examination Center of Harlem (BECH) is founded, establishing a reputation in the Harlem community for free, high-quality care. An outreach program of Memorial Sloan Kettering, BECH has screened more than 204,000 women for breast cancer.

1981 – The James T. Murray Pediatric Day Hospital opens, enlarging the Pediatric Day Hospital that opened in 1969 and providing expanded treatment and recreational facilities for young outpatients.

1982 – Memorial Sloan Kettering establishes the nation’s first Pain Service, dedicated to developing more-effective treatments for patients with pain that is acute, chronic, or difficult to manage.

1988 – Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Post-Treatment Resource Program (as of 2011 called the Resources for Life After Cancer Program) is established, offering a broad range of support services for cancer survivors and their families including consultations, seminars, workshops, and professionally-led support groups. The program has served thousands of cancer survivors and is a model for cancer support programs at comprehensive cancer centers around the country.

 1989 – The Rockefeller Research Laboratories building opens in May. It currently houses a number of Sloan Kettering Institute research programs as well as some Memorial Hospital research laboratories. Located on the south side of 67th Street between First and York Avenues, the building is dedicated to John D. Rockefeller, Jr. – one of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s visionary supporters.

1990-1999

1991 – Memorial Sloan Kettering opens its new outpatient facility in October. Known as the Enid A. Haupt Pavilion, this location includes the Radiation Oncology Center, the Surgical Day Hospital, and Physician Office Suites.

1994 – Memorial Sloan Kettering researchers lead a study which finds that removing precancerous polyps in the colon can reduce the risk of colorectal cancer by as much as 90 percent. The findings also confirm the cost-effectiveness of colorectal cancer screenings.

1995 – Memorial Sloan Kettering opens its first regional outpatient facility in October. Located on Phelps Memorial Hospital Center’s 64-acre campus in Sleepy Hollow, New York, the facility offers a convenient location for patients to receive chemotherapy and minimizes the need for travel to Manhattan for treatment. Radiation oncology services became available there in 1997.

1996 – Memorial Sloan Kettering opens an outpatient cancer treatment program in June in Denville, New Jersey. The program was moved 10 years later when our new ambulatory center in Basking Ridge, New Jersey opened in 2006.

1997 – Memorial Sloan Kettering Rockville Centre opens in November. The ambulatory facility offers chemotherapy and radiation treatment in a location that is convenient for residents of Nassau, western Suffolk, and Queens Counties in New York.

1997 – Memorial Sloan Kettering breast surgeons prove the value of sentinel node biopsy. This procedure allows many patients with breast cancer to avoid removal of most armpit lymph nodes, thereby reducing the risk of lymphedema (arm swelling) and speeding recovery after surgery.

1998 – Memorial Sloan Kettering opens an outpatient facility in Hauppauge, New York, in May, providing state-of-the-art skin cancer care in a location that is convenient for residents of Long Island, New York.

1999 – The Laurance S. Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion opens in April. Also known as Memorial Sloan Kettering 53rd Street, this location provides outpatient cancer care as well as innovative programs in women’s health and cancer prevention.

1999 The Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering is established, offering patients evidenced-based complementary interventions to optimize mainstream care before, during, and after treatment.

2000-2009

2001 – Memorial Sloan Kettering awards the first Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research. Named for Paul A. Marks, President Emeritus of Memorial Sloan Kettering, the prize is intended to encourage young investigators who have a unique opportunity to shape the future of cancer research. The prize is given every other year to investigators who are making important contributions to cancer research early in their careers.

2002 – Memorial Sloan Kettering opens the Sidney Kimmel Center for Prostate and Urologic Cancers on March 1. The facility offers a comprehensive approach for the management of these types of cancers under one roof.

2002 – Memorial Sloan Kettering opens an outpatient center in Commack, New York, in June. This is Memorial Sloan Kettering’s first freestanding suburban outpatient treatment facility, offering a range of services including cancer diagnosis, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgical consultations, and cancer screening.

2002 – Memorial Sloan Kettering researchers Michel Sadelain, Isabelle Rivière, and Renier Brentjens make an important advance in cancer immunotherapy by building the first effective chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells. These CAR T cells are able to survive, proliferate, and kill prostate cancer cells in the lab. This development establishes the feasibility of CAR T cell therapy.

2002 – The first collaborative research center, the Center for Experimental Therapeutics, is established at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Many other such centers are added in the coming years. These groups enable close partnerships between laboratory investigators and clinicians from different disciplines. Basic and clinical science teams come together to focus on strategically important areas of cancer research.

2003 – Memorial Sloan Kettering launches one of the country’s first comprehensive programs for cancer survivors across all age groups that includes follow-up care, research, and education, and training. Designed to address long-term and late effects of cancer and treatment, our Cancer Survivorship Initiative has since become the largest program of its kind, and the model has been adopted by centers internationally.

2003 – The Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care (RLC) opens as a partnership between Memorial Sloan Kettering, the Polo Ralph Lauren Foundation, and North General Hospital. The RLC serves the Harlem community and surrounding neighborhoods by offering cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and support services.

2004 – Memorial Sloan Kettering refurbishes its pediatric space and opens the Claire Tow Pediatric Pavilion — a custom-designed, light-filled, and brightly colored environment that includes an outpatient Pediatric Day Hospital, inpatient units, a classroom, and a recreation center.

2004 – The Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences is established. The PhD-granting institution trains the next generation of scientists by integrating Memorial Sloan Kettering’s basic science and clinical arms to maximize students’ potential to improve human health.

2005 – The Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program (HOPP) is formed to bridge the gap between laboratory and clinical research. HOPP brings together researchers in many disciplines to address the challenges presented by cancer research in an era of targeted therapies.

2006 – A new 72,000-square-foot surgical center opens in May. Each of the 21 state-of-the-art operating rooms are equipped for both minimally invasive surgery and traditional open surgery, and four of the rooms are specially designed to accommodate orthopedic and neurological procedures.

2006 – The Mortimer B. Zuckerman Research Center opens in September. The 23-story leading-edge research facility is erected on the site of the original Kettering building built in 1964 and houses many cancer research programs in some 300,000 square feet of laboratory space.

2006 – Memorial Sloan Kettering opens a suburban outpatient center in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, in September. The state-of-the-art outpatient facility offers the same outstanding cancer care as Memorial Sloan Kettering’s New York City facilities in a location that is convenient for residents of New Jersey.

2009 – The Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center and MSKCC Imaging Center open in September. This 16-story facility, located within walking distance of Memorial Hospital, offers the most-advanced, comprehensive services for breast cancer patients, all under one roof, while also expanding services for the screening and diagnosis of many other types of cancer.

2010-2019

2010 – Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Center for Image-Guided Intervention opens in June, offering cancer patients the most advanced, minimally invasive diagnostic and treatment options in a unique multidisciplinary setting. The 40,000-square-foot facility houses an expanded Surgical Day Hospital and a new endoscopy suite.

2010 – Memorial Sloan Kettering greatly improves its capacity to help patients with cancer regain physical function and a sense of well-being with the opening of the Sillerman Center for Rehabilitation. The state-of-the-art facility provides services tailored to the special needs of people who are undergoing or have recently completed cancer treatment.

2011 – The US Food and Drug Administration approves ipilimumab (Yervoy®), the first immune checkpoint inhibitor, based on the work of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s James Allison and Jedd Wolchok. This type of drug works by taking the brakes off immune cells, allowing them to better fight cancer.

2012 – The first four students receive their PhD degrees in May from the Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The mission of the school, which opened in 2006, is to advance the frontiers of scientific knowledge by educating creative and motivated students in an interactive, innovative, and collegial environment.

2012 – The second phase of construction on the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Research Center is completed in October. The seven-story, 147,000-square-foot addition to the phase 1 building that was completed in 2006 contains a conference center with a 350-seat auditorium, laboratories, and space for physicians’ academic offices.

2013 – Memorial Sloan Kettering launches the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance. The initiative is designed to collaboratively guide community providers toward state-of-the-art cancer care. Hartford HealthCare in Connecticut is selected as the first member of the alliance.

2014 – Memorial Sloan Kettering adds to its network of suburban outpatient facilities with the opening of a new 114,000-square-foot site in Harrison, New York. The new location allows Memorial Sloan Kettering to offer ambulatory cancer care closer to home for patients who reside in the Hudson Valley area.

2014 – Scientists use MSK-IMPACT, a powerful genetic test, to sequence a patient’s tumor for the first time. MSK-IMPACT detects gene mutations and other genetic changes in both rare and common cancers. The test was created by Memorial Sloan Kettering genome scientists, bioinformaticians, and molecular pathologists. It provides essential information to help doctors make treatment decisions and offers important research insights about disease progression and resistance.

2014 – Memorial Sloan Kettering establishes the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Molecular Oncology. This ambitious initiative aims to speed the translation of novel molecular discoveries into clinical practice and to reshape the design of clinical trials.

2015 – Memorial Sloan Kettering opens the Josie Robertson Surgery Center. In this first-of-its-kind freestanding facility, MSK surgeons perform outpatient procedures in an innovative setting. The center was specially designed so patients can return home either the day of or the day after a procedure.

2015 – A landmark study published by Memorial Sloan Kettering researchers in the New England Journal of Medicine illustrates how MSK-IMPACT data could be used to group patients whose tumors share the same mutation — regardless of where the cancer originated. It represents the first basket trial. In this type of study, treatment is based on a mutation in the tumor rather than where in the body that tumor first developed.

2016 – Memorial Sloan Kettering adds to its network of regional outpatient facilities, opening a 120,000-square-foot site in Middletown, New Jersey. Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth is the first location outside Manhattan where Memorial Sloan Kettering offers surgical services, along with a comprehensive array of other programs.

2016 – The American Nurses Credentialing Center grants Magnet® recognition to Memorial Sloan Kettering. This is the highest and most prestigious distinction a healthcare organization can receive for nursing excellence and high-quality patient care.

2016 – Memorial Sloan Kettering partners with Hackensack Meridian Health, one of New Jersey’s largest and most respected healthcare systems. The collaboration enables greater access to clinical trials for residents of New Jersey, with the goal of accelerating the development of new treatments for cancer.

2016 – Memorial Sloan Kettering becomes one of the six founding members of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. This network of scientists and research centers is geared toward unlocking the power of the immune system to fight cancer. 

2016 – The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance welcomes Lehigh Valley Health Network, a multisite healthcare system in eastern Pennsylvania, as its second member.

2016 – Memorial Sloan Kettering installs an advanced cryo-electron microscope. This exciting new research technology further strengthens the Sloan Kettering Institute’s commitment to better understand the structure of key biological molecules involved in cancer.

2017 – The cancer immunotherapy treatment called CAR T cell therapy is approved by the FDA for certain types of leukemia and lymphoma. Memorial Sloan Kettering physician-scientists were pioneers in devising and testing this type of “living drug,” which employs a patient’s own immune cells to find and fight cancer.

2017 – Memorial Sloan Kettering continues extending availability to clinical trials by establishing relationships with more medical facilities, including the Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist Health South Florida, which becomes a member of the MSK Cancer Alliance. Memorial Sloan Kettering also creates a unique relationship with Norwalk Hospital in Connecticut — MSK Physicians at Norwalk Hospital — which has Memorial Sloan Kettering doctors providing on-site care to patients at a non-Memorial Sloan Kettering facility outside of New York State for the first time.

2017 – Memorial Sloan Kettering opens a brand-new residence on 75th Street for bone marrow transplant patients and their caregivers. The fully furnished apartments are seven blocks from Memorial Hospital, making them convenient for people who need to see their doctors frequently for follow-up monitoring and care.

2018 – The opening of MSK Bergen, in Montvale, New Jersey, with 110,000 square feet of clinical space, brings outstanding cancer care to people living in northern New Jersey and southern New York. A large number of Memorial Sloan Kettering patients call this region home. 

2018 – At Memorial Hospital, the Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Service opens a new floor where patients can get the most-innovative stem cell transplants as well as CAR T cell therapy.

2018 – Former SKI immunologist James Allison wins a Nobel prize for his work on immune checkpoint inhibitors. Dr. Allison was a member of the Sloan Kettering Institute from 2004 to 2012.

2018 – The FDA approves the drug larotrectinib (Vitrakvi®) for cancers caused by a genetic mutation called a TRK fusion. A landmark in precision medicine, it is the first time a targeted drug is approved based on mutation type rather than on where in the body the tumor originated. David Hyman, then Chief of the Early Drug Development Service at MSK, led the pivotal clinical trial. He has been succeeded by Alexander Drilon, who continues to lead groundbreaking research.

2019 – Memorial Sloan Kettering opens MSK Nassau, a 114,000-square-foot outpatient facility in Uniondale, New York, on Long Island. The facility, which offers services for almost every aspect of cancer care, allows for more convenient treatment for people from Nassau County and eastern Queens.

2019 – The Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care officially becomes part of Memorial Sloan Kettering. Opened in 2003, the RLC is a model for quality and equity in healthcare for residents of Harlem and surrounding neighborhoods.

2019 – Memorial Sloan Kettering announces MSK Kids, the new name of the pediatric program. The sole focus of MSK Kids is caring for children, teenagers, and young adults with cancer and related diseases.

2019 – Along with two other medical institutions, Memorial Sloan Kettering opens the New York Proton Center (NYPC) in Manhattan. Proton therapy is an advanced form of radiation therapy designed to kill cancer cells. Memorial Sloan Kettering doctors began offering proton therapy in 2013 at a facility in Somerset, New Jersey. The NYPC is the first location to provide this sophisticated treatment in New York City.

2020-2022

2020 – Memorial Sloan Kettering opens the David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care, a 750,000-square-foot, 23-story outpatient cancer center on East 74th Street and FDR Drive in Manhattan. The new center provides the most-advanced cancer treatments in a dynamic space for the rapidly increasing number of people who have outpatient care.

2020 – The FDA approves the drug naxitamab (Danyelza) for the treatment of patients with high-risk neuroblastoma, a rare cancer that develops in early nerve cells. Naxitamab is a humanized antibody developed by MSK physician-scientist Nai-Kong Cheung.  An additional drug for neuroblastoma, called omburtamab, was also developed by Dr. Cheung and has received Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the FDA. These two important drugs offer an effective treatment for children with advanced neuroblastoma.

2021 – The FDA approves an imaging technology to pinpoint prostate cancer cells that would otherwise be hidden so treatment can be targeted. MSK investigators helped test the imaging tool, which uses a radioactive molecule that seeks out and attaches to a protein on the cancer cells’ surface called PSMA. It’s considered the most important advance in prostate cancer diagnosis since the prostate-specific antigen test (PSA). In addition, a PSMA-based prostate cancer treatment, also clinically tested at MSK, received Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the FDA. MSK played an instrumental role in bringing PSMA-based imaging and treatments to the point where it can help patients.

2021 – The FDA gives partial recognition to OncoKB, a genetic variant database developed at MSK to interpret the usefulness of tumor mutations for predicting drug responses. The recognition means that OncoKB is considered a scientifically valid tool for this purpose.

2021 The FDA approves sotorasib (LumakrasTM) to treat advanced non-small cell lung cancer driven by the KRAS-G12C mutation —  previously considered undruggable. The drug’s development was a 40-year endeavor involving many investigators at several institutions, including MSK’s Piro Lito, Neal Rosen, and Bob Li. A major milestone in targeted therapies for many lung cancer patients, it also opens the door to treating other common cancers that carry a KRAS mutation.