David Solit, MD

Geoffery Beene Chair

Co-Director, Marie-Josee and Henry R. Kravis Center for Molecular Oncology

Attending Physician, Genitourinary Service, Department of Medicine

Chief, Molecular Cancer Medicine Service

Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program

David Solit is a medical oncologist and a laboratory scientist. As a member of the Genitourinary Oncology Service, Dr. Solit specializes in treating cancers of the prostate, bladder, kidney, testis, and other related cancers.

Dr. Solit treats his patients with chemotherapy, targeted therapies, immunotherapy, or combinations of these drugs. He also works with other cancer experts including surgeons and radiation oncologists, to develop an individual treatment plan for each patient.

Dr. Solit is very involved in clinical trials, particularly those of targeted drugs known as kinase inhibitors, which block pathways inside cancer cells that cause the cells to grow or spread. One area of focus in his research is studying patients who are known as extraordinary responders. These are people with difficult-to-treat cancers who are found to respond exceptionally well to a new drug, even though that drug does not work in most people with the same disease.

David Solit’s laboratory in the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering completed the first whole-genome analysis of a patient with bladder cancer. By performing this analysis, Dr. Solit’s lab was able to determine what was genetically unique about this patient’s tumor. They are now testing the same drug in other patients whose tumors have a similar genetic profile.

As the Director of the Marie-Josee and Henry R. Kravis Center for Molecular Oncology at MSK, Dr. Solit also leads a multidisciplinary team of clinicians, geneticists, bioinformaticians, and laboratory scientists. The mission of the CMO is to integrate molecular and clinical information to develop therapies that are individualized to each patient’s cancer.

Dr. David Solit and his colleagues work to make sure that all patients who come to MSK receive the best care possible, whether that means conventional or experimental therapies.