Robert C. Kurtz, MD

I led the development of Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s pancreatic cancer registry, which is for people at high risk of the disease due to their family history. For the registry, we screen healthy people yearly using MRI to look for lesions that can develop into malignant tumors. If lesions are detected, physicians can follow up with more extensive testing. Pancreatic cancer is difficult to treat, and the disease is almost always fatal without intervention. With our familial pancreatic tumor registry, we hope to identify people with precancerous lesions, or who have an earlier stage of pancreatic cancer.

I am an active leader in hospital affairs, and am a former president of the medical staff at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and past-chairman of the Center’s Clinical Council.