Hepatobiliary surgeon Ronald P. DeMatteo has been named Vice Chair of the Department of Surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Head of the department's new Division of General Surgical Oncology. He was also named Director of the fellowship training program in general surgical oncology.
The new division is being established to centralize and coordinate the department's general surgery programs, which focus on cancers of the abdominal gastrointestinal tract, sarcomas and melanomas, and endocrine tumors. The Services in the new division -- Breast, Colorectal, Gastric and Mixed Tumor, and Hepatobiliary -- form the core of the rotations for surgical oncology fellows during their training.
Dr. DeMatteo is a board-certifed surgeon with expertise in treating cancers of the liver and pancreas and managing complex hepatobiliary disease. His laboratory research centers on dendritic cells (a type of immune cell) and their potential to treat cancer. He received his MD degree in 1990 from Cornell Medical College and completed residency training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He came to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as a surgical fellow in 1997 and joined the staff of the Hepatobiliary Service in 1999. From 2001 to 2003 he chaired Memorial Hospital's Junior Faculty Council, which was created to promote the academic development of younger staff members during the first five years of their appointments.
"Dr. DeMatteo has distinguished himself as an excellent physician and surgeon, a gifted teacher, and an accomplished translational scientist" said Peter T. Scardino, Chair of the Department of Surgery. "I am confident that he will enhance even further the preeminent program in general surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center."
