Nancy E. Kemeny, MD, is an Emeritus Member of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Service, Division of Solid Tumor Oncology, of the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK).
Dr. Kemeny served with distinction as a revered clinician, teacher, and pioneering institutional leader at MSK for more than 45 years. Her work defined the field of oncology’s colorectal cancer treatment paradigms and has had an enduring impact on the cancer community worldwide.
After completing a medical oncology fellowship at MSK, Dr. Kemeny was recruited to the faculty in May of 1976 and rose through the ranks to become an Attending Physician, with a joint appointment as Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Kemeny’s research has focused on the treatment of metastatic colorectal carcinoma using systemic chemotherapy and hepatic arterial infusion. Her early research also identified high levels of lactate dehydrogenase and high leukocyte counts as important prognostic factors in patients with advanced colorectal carcinoma. Dr. Kemeny took a multidisciplinary approach to clinical care and research in the CRC setting, collaborating extensively with molecular biologists, interventional radiologists, nuclear medicine specialists, surgical oncologists, and pathologists. She has authored over 400 manuscripts, including some of the first studies on irinotecan and oxaliplatin, which are now widely used to help patients with gastrointestinal malignancies.
Dr. Kemeny’s innovative, pioneering, and transformative work on hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy changed the way that the oncology field treats metastatic colorectal cancer, allowing patients with extensive liver disease to undergo a curative resection. Her seminal randomized controlled trials — incorporating developmental chemotherapeutic agents, genetic analysis, biologic therapy, and immunotherapy — demonstrated significantly longer survival in patients with metastatic colorectal carcinoma who received hepatic arterial infusion in combination with newer systemic chemotherapies. This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health and led to highly-cited manuscripts in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Dr. Kemeny built a one-of-a-kind program for patients with liver metastases that, to this day, remains the gold standard for liver metastasis programs that other cancer centers have strived to emulate. As one of the busiest attending medical oncologists at MSK, Dr. Kemeny often saw close to 100 patients in a week, many of whom came from abroad to seek her care. She played an integral role in counselling early- and mid-career colleagues on locoregional therapies for patients with liver metastasis across the departments of interventional radiology, medicine, and surgery. Her unmatched clinical expertise, tremendous energy and work ethic, and dedication to compassionate patient care are an inspiration to several generations of oncologists.
Throughout her tenure, Dr. Kemeny received numerous awards in a testament to her encyclopedic knowledge of the field and her paradigm-advancing contributions to colorectal cancer care. She also held prominent leadership roles at various state- and national-level organizations. On the national level, she was a frequent presenter at scientific conferences and chaired committees in the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and SWOG Cancer Research Network, in addition to serving on the ASCO Board of Directors. Widely respected and admired for her her commitment to sharing knowledge, Dr. Kemeny was in high demand as an invited speaker internationally.
Dr. Kemeny was a pioneer in every sense of the word. Following her retirement in September 2023, Dr. Kemeny intends to volunteer her time to teach MSK fellows and faculty to help transition the liver metastases program to its new leadership.