Kimberly J. Van Zee, MD, FACS
Breast Surgeon
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Meet Breast Cancer Surgeon Kimberly Van Zee
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About Me
- Attending Surgeon
I am a breast surgical oncologist with a practice dedicated exclusively to the treatment of breast cancer. For almost 30 years, I have used my skills to provide the highest quality surgical care to women with breast cancer.
I spend two full days in the operating room each week, and I see outpatients in the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center.
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My many years of education and training — including graduating summa cum laude from Pomona College, earning a master’s degree in Statistics, receiving my MD from Harvard Medical School, and completing my surgical training at Cornell University and Memorial Sloan Kettering — prepared me for the challenges of caring for women with breast cancer. I have been honored for many years by being listed in “America’s Top Doctors,” “America’s Top Doctors for Cancer,” “New York Super Doctors,” and in New York Magazine’s “Best Doctors in New York.”
My research interests include exploring diagnostic and treatment options for patients with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), in which cancer cells are confined within the ducts of the breast and have not invaded into the surrounding breast tissue outside of the ducts. The diagnosis of DCIS has increased exponentially over the past decades. Yet, the recurrence rates for women with DCIS treated with breast-conserving surgery has not been as low as that of women with the more common invasive breast cancer.
In women with DCIS treated with breast-conserving surgery (BCS), I found that women of younger ages are at higher risk for local recurrence. I also published the largest series to date examining the influence of margin width on the risk of recurrence of DCIS treated with BCS, and participated in a Consensus Conference establishing guidelines for margin width for DCIS treated with BCS and radiation. Fortunately, analyses of our data also showed that the risk of recurrence for a woman with DCIS treated with BCS alone has decreased over the decades by a substantial degree.
Putting together these findings and others regarding the various factors that influence the risk of local recurrence after BCS for DCIS together, I created a risk prediction model, called a nomogram, to help clinicians and patients estimate the risk of recurrence for an individual patient. This DCIS nomogram has been validated in at least 6 different populations in the US and internationally and is available free-of-charge online to help clinicians and women weigh the various treatment options for DCIS. I also showed that this tool apparently performs better than a commercially available $4600 test that is marketed as a risk prediction tool for DCIS.
Together with colleagues from Dana Farber, I examined over 3000 women who underwent a mastectomy for DCIS and showed that while recurrence rates are extremely low, the youngest women are at higher risk.
Another area of special interest is sentinel lymph node biopsy. This is a method in which the breast tissue is “mapped” to identify one or a few nodes to which a woman’s breast cancer would first metastasize (spread). I developed another nomogram predictive tool that calculates the likelihood of additional lymph node metastases in breast-cancer patients who have metastasis in a sentinel node. This additional node nomogram has been widely used and validated at dozens of institutions around the world. We also developed a nomogram to help a woman with breast cancer predict the risk of having sentinel node metastases. This risk of nodal metastasis nomogram can help a woman understand her risk after she’s had a breast biopsy but before the results of the sentinel node biopsy are available.
In order to share information that we have learned about breast cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering, I have lectured extensively, both nationally and internationally, and authored many manuscripts on topics in breast cancer. You can view a listing of my publications in PubMed by clicking on the PubMed icon below.
A breast surgeon is a doctor with special training in surgery on breasts.
My Specialties
- Breast Cancer
Education
- MD, Harvard Medical School
Residencies
- Surgery - New York Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College
Awards and Honors
- Castle Connolly: Exceptional Women in Medicine (2024)
- Castle Connolly: America’s Top Doctor (2024)
- Top Doctors New York Metro Area, Castle Connolly (2023)
- Exceptional Women in Medicine Award, Castle Connolly (2023)
- Castle Connolly: America's Top Doctors (2023)
- Castle Connolly: New York Magazine Top Doctors (2009-2020)
Fellowships
- Cornell University Medical College
Board Certifications
- Surgery
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Contact and Location
Dr. Van Zee sees patients at one location.
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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.
Clinical Trials
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 trialsResearch and Publications
Visit PubMed for a full listing of Dr. Van Zee’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 PubMedPatient Reviews
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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.
Kimberly J. Van Zee 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.
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