James W. Smithy

James W. Smithy, MD, MHS

Melanoma Medical Oncologist & Cellular Therapist

Areas of Expertise

Conditions I Treat

  • Melanoma

My Specialties

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

I am a medical oncologist focused exclusively on treating patients with melanoma. I see patients at the Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion and the David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer (MSK) in Manhattan.

In my clinical practice, I work with an expert team of surgeons, radiation oncologists, nurses, and administrative staff. Together, we aim to provide effective, evidence-based melanoma care tailored to each patient’s unique goals and preferences. In each visit, I prioritize discussing the ways that patients can access innovative treatments. This includes therapies approved for the treatment of melanoma, as well as clinical trials of promising new approaches.

As a clinical investigator, my research is focused on advancing the next generation of immunotherapies to treat melanoma. I develop and lead clinical trials and collaborate with pathologists and computational biologists to analyze melanoma tissue and better understand how these therapies work. I am currently investigating new combinations of immune checkpoint inhibitors (a type of immunotherapy), including giving checkpoint inhibitors with cancer vaccines. I am also a member of MSK’s Cellular Therapy Service, where our team is investigating adoptive cell therapy with tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) for some people whose melanoma has not responded to other treatments. TIL therapy is an immunotherapy that uses a patient’s immune cells to kill cancer.

Having grown up on Long Island, it is a privilege to take care of people from diverse communities across the New York metropolitan area and beyond. I strive to get to know my patients on a personal level and partner with them to develop treatment plans in which they feel confident.

What I Do at MSK

I'm a melanoma medical oncologist, which is a cancer doctor who specializes in melanoma. This includes superficial spreading, nodular, lentigo maligna, and acral lentiginous melanomas. It also includes eye, mucosal, and rare skin melanomas.

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.

  • Assistant Attending Physician
Areas of Expertise

Conditions I Treat

  • Melanoma

My Specialties

  • Immunotherapy
  • Cellular therapy
Education & Honors

Education

  • MD, Yale School of Medicine
  • MHS, Yale School of Medicine

Residencies

  • Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital
  • Chief Residency, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Fellowships

  • Medical Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Board Certifications

  • Medical Oncology
  • Internal Medicine

Awards and Honors

  • NCCN Foundation Young Investigator Award, National Comprehensive Cancer Network (2024)
  • Conquer Cancer Foundation Merit Award, American Society of Clinical Oncology (2023)
  • Seligson Thesis Prize, Yale School of Medicine (2017)
  • Miriam Kathleen Dasey Award, Yale School of Medicine (2017)
  • William R. Belknap Prize, Yale College (2010)

Insurance Information

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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

Office Phone
Location
New York, NY
Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion
160 East 53rd Street New York NY 10022
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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.

See all Cellular Therapy Service doctors

See all Melanoma Service doctors

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

Smithy JW, Kalvin HL, Ehrich FD, Shah R, Adamow M, Raber V, Maher CA, Kleman J, McIntyre DAG, Shoushtari AN, Betof Warner A, Callahan MK, Momtaz P, Eton O, Nair S, Wolchok JD, Chapman PB, Berger MF, Panageas KS, Postow MA. Early On-Treatment Assessment of T Cells, Cytokines, and Tumor DNA with Adaptively Dosed Nivolumab + Ipilimumab: Final Results from the Phase 2 ADAPT-IT Study. Clin Cancer Res. 2024 Aug 15;30(16):3407-3415. PMID: 38767650; PMCID: PMC11357703.

Smithy JW, Peng X, Ehrich FD, Moy AP, Yosofvand M, Maher C, Aleynick N, Vanguri R, Zhuang M, Lee J, Bleile M, Li Y, Postow MA, Panageas KS, Hollmann TJ, Callahan MK, Shen R. Quantitatively defined stromal B cell aggregates are associated with response to checkpoint inhibitors in unresectable melanoma. Cell Rep. 2025 Apr 22;44(4):115554. Epub 2025 Apr 11. PMID: 40220297; PMCID: PMC12166967.

Smithy JW, Schoenfeld AJ, Betof Warner A. The Clinical TIL Experience in Melanoma: Past, Present, Future. Transplant Cell Ther. 2025 Mar;31(3S):S626-S634. PMID: 40089331.

Publications on PubMed

Visit PubMed for a full listing of Dr. Smithy’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

Members of the MSK Community 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. These activities outside of MSK further our mission, provide productive collaborations, and promote the practical application of scientific discoveries.

MSK requires doctors, faculty members, and leaders 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. Not all disclosed interests and relationships present conflicts of interest. MSK reviews all disclosed interests and relationships to assess whether a conflict of interest exists and whether formal COI management is needed.

James W. Smithy discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

  • Bristol-Myers Squibb
    Professional Services and Activities
  • IO Biotech
    Professional Services and Activities
  • Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc.
    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, 2024 through disclosure submission in spring 2025). 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 ecoi@mskcc.org.


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