Professor of Medicine
Columbia University Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center
Gary K. Schwartz MD is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) and the Deputy Director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC). His approach in bench-top to bedside research has focused on the development of novel therapies for patients with a sarcoma and melanoma. His laboratory programs have been supported by the National Cancer Institute with R01 and Sarcoma SPORE grants as well as grant funding from the FDA and the DOD. This has resulted in a series of innovative translational clinical trials with inhibitors of CDK4/6, MDM2, MEK, AKT, IGF-1R, mTOR, Notch, PARP, BRD4, MET and receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Prior to his recruitment to Columbia in January 2014, Dr. Schwartz was Chief of the Melanoma and Sarcoma Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. At CUIMC he is PI of the Minority/Underserved Site NCI Community Oncology Research Program (MU-NCORP) and the co-PI of T32 fellowship in molecular oncology. He has served on the NCI Investigational Drug Steering Committee and NCI’s Experimental Therapeutics Program (NExT), as well as editorial boards of various scientific journals, including Associate Editor for the Journal of Clinical Oncology and Clinical Cancer Research. He is also actively involved in cooperative group activities and serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology and is co-Chair of the Experimental Therapeutics Committee for Rare Cancers. Dr. Schwartz has authored 243 papers and 35 book chapters, reviews and editorials. He is the recipient of many awards including the Nobility in Science Award from Sarcoma Foundation of America and the Ewing Award for recognition of outstanding teaching of house staff and fellows at CUMC.