Carol Morris

Carol D. Morris, MD, MS

Areas of Expertise

Conditions I Treat

  • Soft tissue sarcomas
  • Bone cancers and conditions
  • Benign bone tumors and noncancerous bone conditions

My Specialties

  • Precision medicine
  • Limb salvage surgery
  • Rotationplasty
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Get to Know Me

As Chief of the Orthopaedic Surgery Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), I oversee the largest and most talented team of board-certified orthopedic oncologists in the nation. We perform approximately 1,000 operations a year for people with cancerous and noncancerous (benign) tumors of the bones and soft tissue.

Many of the adult and pediatric patients I see have tumors related to:

I love being a surgeon and especially caring for children, adolescents, and young adults. My surgical philosophy is guided by precision medicine. To me, this means identifying the right operation for the right patient, based on their individual traits and needs. The “right treatment” looks different for each patient. For example, the surgical approach that is best for a child will often not be the one that is best for an adult, even if the tumors are caused by the same condition. There is no one-size-fits-all approach in orthopedic surgery. One of the most gratifying parts of my job is working with people to understand what they want to accomplish through treatment and taking creative approaches to make their goals their realities.

Although the safe removal of these tumors is our top priority, it is not our only priority. We provide treatment that focuses not only on removing the cancer, but also on supporting the health of the musculoskeletal system which can be affected by cancer treatment. Maintaining and restoring bone and muscle function as well as quality of life is critical to our treatment mission — addressing the tumor is just the first step in carrying out this mission.

Often, people with musculoskeletal tumors are concerned about losing a limb. In the current era, most tumors can be removed without amputation. I am an expert in limb salvage surgery, an approach that helps preserve the limb by removing the diseased bone and some surrounding tissue. Sometimes, we can replace bone that has been removed with bone from another part of the body or a metallic implant. We have developed replacements that are more durable and functional than those that were previously available. I also have extensive experience in a unique procedure called rotationplasty, an innovative way to treat tumors around the knee that might otherwise require amputation above the knee. With rotationplasty, patients usually return to a very active lifestyle.

The trifold mission of MSK is my professional north star—clinical care, education, and research. I am committed to maintaining the best outcomes for our orthopedic patients; mentoring faculty and fellows to realize their potential; and advancing our knowledge of orthopedic cancer through scholarship and collaboration. I am fortunate to work at an institution that understands the importance of weaving these priorities together to care for the whole person and cure cancer, and in that order.

What I Do at MSK

I'm an orthopaedic (OR-thuh-PEE-dik) surgeon, which is a doctor with special training in surgery on the musculoskeletal system. This includes the bones, joints, tendons, and muscles.

  • Chief, Orthopaedic Surgery Service
  • Jack Byrne Chair for Adolescent and Young Adult Cancers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Areas of Expertise

Conditions I Treat

  • Soft tissue sarcomas
  • Bone cancers and conditions
  • Benign bone tumors and noncancerous bone conditions
  • Bone metastases
  • Common pediatric soft tissue sarcomas
  • Neuroendocrine-related conditions - neurofibromatosis

My Specialties

  • Precision medicine
  • Limb salvage surgery
  • Rotationplasty
Education & Honors

Education

  • MS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Residencies

  • Orthopaedic Surgery - Boston Medical Center

Fellowships

  • Musculoskeletal Oncology - Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Board Certifications

  • Orthopaedic Surgery (2003)

Awards and Honors

  • Castle Connolly Top Doctor (2013-Present)
  • Corrine Farrell Award, International Skeletal Society (2019)
  • Teacher of the Year, Johns Hopkins Orthopedic Residency Program (2015)
  • Career Development Award, Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation (2005)

Insurance Information

Understanding your insurance options is an important part of managing your cancer care. We have relationships with many common healthcare providers and plans.

Don't see your carrier or plan? We can help you understand your coverage.

If you don't have health insurance or are worried that your care may not be fully covered, our financial assistance programs may be able to help.

If you have questions about insurance, call us at 646-497-9176.

Make an Appointment

Current Patients
Request an appointment by calling your Care Team or messaging them in MSK MyChart.

Contact and Location

Dr. Morris sees patients at one location.

Office Phone
Location
New York, NY
160 East 53rd Street New York NY 10022

Looking to see a doctor at a different location? See all MSK locations.

Colleagues

Doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering work as teams, with specialists from all different areas. This allows us to consider all your needs together, and to give you the best possible care.

See all Surgery doctors

See all Orthopaedic Service doctors

Clinical Trials

Smiling doctors in the lab
Find a Clinical Trial for You

Memorial Sloan Kettering's doctors and scientists are constantly developing new treatments for cancer. MSK is typically running hundreds of clinical trials at a given time.

You may be able to participate in a clinical trial even if you are new to MSK. Search our online directory to find trial information and see more about who can participate.

Search clinical trials

Research and Publications

Publications on PubMed

Visit PubMed for a full listing of Dr. Morris’s journal articles. Pubmed is an online index of research papers and other articles from the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

See all on PubMed

Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members often work with pharmaceutical, device, biotechnology, and life sciences companies, and other organizations outside of MSK, to find safe and effective cancer treatments, to improve patient care, and to educate the health care community.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members to report (“disclose”) the relationships and financial interests they have with external entities. As a commitment to transparency with our community, we make that information available to the public.

Carol D. Morris discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

No disclosures meeting criteria for time period


If you’re a patient at MSK and would like more information about your doctor’s external relationships, please talk with your doctor.

The information published here is a complement to other publicly reported data and is for a specific annual disclosure period. There may be differences between information on this and other public sites as a result of different reporting periods and/or the various ways relationships and financial interests are categorized by organizations that publish such data.


This page and data include information for a specific MSK annual disclosure period (January 1, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). This data reflects interests that may or may not still exist. This data is updated annually.

Learn more about MSK’s COI policies here. For questions regarding MSK’s COI-related policies and procedures, email MSK’s Compliance Office at [email protected].


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