Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Reinforces Commitment to Patients in the Middle East Ahead of Arab Health

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Reinforces Commitment to Patients in the Middle East Ahead of Arab Health

Dubai, UAE. 23rd January 2025 — Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), a global leader in cancer care, research, and education, is pleased to announce an expanded focus on the Middle East, reinforcing its longstanding commitment to serving patients from the region.

As part of this commitment, the Bobst International Center at MSK is introducing enhanced services designed to make accessing world-class care more seamless and efficient for patients from outside the United States. This includes streamlining medical record reviews to reduce processing times, eliminating unnecessary escalations in appointment scheduling to ensure quicker access to specialists, and integrating disease-specific expertise to expedite case triage. These advancements aim to simplify the process of scheduling appointments, planning treatment, and coordinating travel to New York, ensuring patients from the Middle East receive the highest standard of care with fewer barriers.

Additionally, MSK is exploring opportunities to continue the two-way knowledge transfer between the U.S. and the UAE to increase our understanding of cancer. For example, Dr. Larry Norton, Founding Medical Director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at MSK and Dr. Ghassan Abou-Alfa, Gastrointestinal Medical Oncologist at MSK, will be giving keynote lectures at the upcoming Arab Health conference.

“We are proud at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to provide the appropriate and adequate therapy in a warm and welcoming environment for the patient and family. At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center we do not treat diseases, we treat patients,” said
Dr. Ghassan Abou-Alfa.

“For over 140 years MSK has been a pioneer in cancer care. By integrating all aspects of care with laboratory studies and modern data science we continue to push the boundaries of our understanding. In this way we are making practice-changing discoveries in prognostication, diagnosis, therapy, and quality of life.” said Dr. Larry Norton. “Through our relationships and research in the region, we aim to collaboratively create new care models and clinical advances that bring better health to patients in the Middle East.”

Dr. Norton, Dr. Abou-Alfa, and the MSK delegation will be meeting with local physicians and healthcare leaders to identify local needs and to explore potential areas of collaboration. The efforts underscore MSK’s dedication to tailoring care that respects cultural and regional health patterns, ensuring that patients receive effective and compassionate treatment.

About Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK)

The people of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) are united by a singular mission: ending cancer for life. Our specialized care teams provide personalized, compassionate, expert care to patients of all ages. Informed by basic research done at our Sloan Kettering Institute, scientists across MSK collaborate to conduct innovative translational and clinical research that is driving a revolution in our understanding of cancer as a disease and improving the ability to prevent, diagnose, and treat it. MSK is dedicated to training the next generation of scientists and clinicians, who go on to pursue our mission at MSK and around the globe. One of the world’s most respected comprehensive centers devoted exclusively to cancer, we have been recognized as one of the top two cancer hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report for more than 30 years. www.mskcc.org.

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