After nearly five decades dedicated to patient care, Dr. Nancy E. Kemeny, Attending Physician in MSK’s Gastrointestinal Oncology Service is retiring in Fall 2023. Heralded with gratitude by her patients, Dr. Kemeny has successfully treated thousands of patients over her career, many of whom she converted from terminal diagnoses to long term survivors. To honor her work and career, MSK is seeking to establish a permanently endowed position in Dr. Kemeny’s name, which would provide an enduring source of encouragement and support for physician-scientists forging new breakthroughs and new progress in the Colorectal Cancer Program.

For more than 40 years, medical and surgical oncologists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), spearheaded by Nancy Kemeny MD and colleagues, have pioneered HAIP chemotherapy, which has proven to be both life-extending and lifesaving. HAIP takes advantage of the liver’s unique biology to deliver highly localized chemotherapy treatment via a small surgically implanted pump directly to the liver. The HAIP pump provides longer- term and continuous release of chemotherapy to the liver, targeting primary liver cancer and colorectal liver metastases.

As a longstanding member of the team of colorectal cancer experts on MSK’s Gastrointestinal Oncology Service, and working in partnership with MSK’s Hepatopancreatobiliary Service, Dr. Kemeny has championed the use of HAIP to provide patients with the best possible outcomes. She has led and participated in numerous key studies that have illuminated the circumstances in which HAIP therapy is most effective and trained a new generation of physician-scientists who have established successful HAIP programs around the United States and in Europe. Thanks to her persistent dedication to liver-directed treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer and cholangiocarcinoma and her generous sharing of her expertise with colleagues around the world, the use of HAIP treatment has now been adopted by 50+ centers around the world.

Endowments are one of the chief resources by which MSK continues to grow, prepare for the future, and attract the most gifted and promising physician-scientists for crucial roles in the initiatives that forge meaningful advances in clinical and basic science. Support for the work of these talented men and women ensures the Center’s continued ability to capitalize on the latest discoveries and to realize the promise of today’s most sophisticated research, tools, and technologies.

$2 out of $3 Million have been so far successfully raised. We are hoping with this website to raise the remaining $1 million toward our $3 million goal to establish a permanent endowed chair to honor Dr. Kemeny and her medical legacy.

We are grateful for your support of Dr. Kemeny and MSK. Thank you!