Dr. Ilson completed undergraduate training at the University of Connecticut. He entered an M.D., Ph.D. combined degree program at New York University and received a master’s degree and Ph.D. in Basic Science and an M.D. from New York University. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Bellevue Hospital at NYU. He then moved to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and completed a fellowship in medical oncology and hematology, including a third-year fellowship as the Brian Piccolo research fellow. He joined the staff at MSKCC in 1992, becoming a member of the GI Oncology Service in the Department of Medicine. He was a recipient of an American Cancer Society Career Development Award. Dr. Ilson is now an attending physician and member at Memorial Hospital and is professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. His area of research interest is upper gastrointestinal cancer with a focus on esophageal cancer. He is an internationally recognized authority in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer. His research has focused on the study of new agents in advanced esophageal cancer and on the evaluation of novel agents in combined modality therapy programs in locally advanced disease. He sits on the GI committees of Alliance for Cancer and NRG, where he serves as the Upper GI Cancer Committee cochair, as well as the Upper GI Cancer Guidelines Committee of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). He is former chairman of and continues to serve on the Intergroup Esophageal and Gastric Cancer Task Force Committee. He currently cochairs several international clinical trials in esophagogastric cancer.