Memorial Sloan Kettering breast medical oncologist Christopher Klebanoff

Christopher A. Klebanoff, MD

Cellular Therapist & Early Drug Development Specialist

Areas of Expertise

Conditions I Treat

  • Breast cancers and conditions

My Specialties

  • Immunotherapy
  • Cellular therapy
  • Cancer vaccines
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Dr. Klebanoff's Office Information
Languages: English
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Get to Know Me

I am a medical oncologist and translational researcher whose focus is on providing the best care possible to people with breast cancer. My dual role in the clinical setting and the laboratory allows me to work with my patients to develop more-effective, less-toxic therapies. I strongly believe that this is how we will change the future of cancer care.

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The ability to use a patient’s own immune system as a form of cancer treatment — immunotherapy — is revolutionizing how we attack many cancers. My goal is to bring these advances to people with breast cancer, a disease for which we are still discovering immunotherapy’s full potential. To this end, I am a member of the Center for Cell Engineering and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering, where I am involved in both clinical trials and laboratory research that aim to bring the most promising immunotherapies to our patients. My expertise is in cellular therapy and genetic engineering, immune-stimulating antibodies and hormones (also called cytokines), and cancer vaccines.

Like many others, my family has been impacted by cancer. I have firsthand experience with how devastating a cancer diagnosis can be, and this guides every interaction I have with my patients and their families. It’s my goal to provide them with a full understanding of the nature of their disease, the treatment options available, and the evidence that supports these options. I believe it’s critical to present what can be an overwhelming amount of information and medical jargon in a way that makes sense.

In addition to empowering my patients with knowledge and understanding, I also want to empower them by providing clear ways of accessing and communicating with me and other members of their care team throughout their treatment and follow-up care. I never want my patients to feel isolated or alone. This communication and collaboration helps us focus on making people feel physically better and confident that they are receiving a treatment plan tailored to their individual needs and goals.

What I Do at MSK

A cellular therapy specialist is a doctor with special training in using cell therapies to treat health conditions such as cancer. Therapies can include chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy.

I'm an early drug development specialist, which is a scientist who tests new drugs to treat cancer. I have special training in research studies, also known as clinical trials.

  • Laboratory Head, Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program (HOPP)
  • Member Investigator, Center for Cell Engineering
Areas of Expertise

Conditions I Treat

  • Breast cancers and conditions

My Specialties

  • Immunotherapy
  • Cellular therapy
  • Cancer vaccines
  • Clinical trials
Education & Honors

Education

  • MD, Emory University School of Medicine

Residencies

  • The Johns Hopkins Hospital

Fellowships

  • National Cancer Institute
  • National Institutes of Health

Board Certifications

  • Internal Medicine
  • Medical Oncology

Awards and Honors

  • Fellows Award for Research Excellence, National Institutes of Health (2013)
  • Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellow, National Cancer Institute (2011)

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.

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Contact and Location

Dr. Klebanoff sees patients at one location.

Office Phone
Location
New York, NY
David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
530 East 74th Street New York NY 10021
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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.

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Clinical Trials

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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.

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Research and Publications

View Dr. Klebanoff's Lab

Klebanoff CA, Rosenberg SA, Restifo NP. Prospects for gene-engineered T cell immunotherapy for solid cancers. Nat Med. 2016 Jan;22(1):26-36. PMID: 26735408

Klebanoff CA, Restifo NP. Customizing Functionality and Payload Delivery for Receptor-Engineered T Cells. Cell. 2016 Oct 6;167(2):304-306. PMID: 27716501

Klebanoff CA, Scott CD, Leonardi AJ, Yamamoto TN, Cruz AC, Ouyang C, Ramaswamy M, Roychoudhuri R, Ji Y, Eil RL, Sukumar M, Crompton JG, Palmer DC, Borman ZA, Clever D, Thomas SK, Patel S, Yu Z, Muranski P, Liu H, Wang E, Marincola FM, Gros A, Gattinoni L, Rosenberg SA, Siegel RM, Restifo NP. Memory T cell-driven differentiation of naive cells impairs adoptive immunotherapy. J Clin Invest. 2016 Jan;126(1):318-34. PMID: 26657860

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Publications on PubMed

Visit PubMed for a full listing of Dr. Klebanoff’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.

Christopher A. Klebanoff discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

  • Achilles Therapeutics
    Equity; Professional Services and Activities
  • Affini-T Therapeutics
    Equity; Intellectual Property Rights; Professional Services and Activities
  • Aleta Biotherapeutics
    Professional Services and Activities
  • Catamaran Bio, Inc.
    Intellectual Property Rights; Professional Services and Activities
  • Intima Bioscience, Inc.
    Intellectual Property Rights
  • Obsidian Therapeutics
    Professional Services and Activities

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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