Smita Sihag MD, MPH, FACS

Smita Sihag is a board-certified thoracic surgeon who specializes in caring for people with cancers of the chest. These include primary tumors in the esophagus, lung, mediastinum, airway, pleura, and chest wall, as well as those that have metastasized (spread) to those areas from other parts of the body. Smita Sihag has special expertise in treating esophageal and tracheal diseases, as well as a variety of benign (non-cancerous) conditions related to these areas such as gastroesophageal reflux, high-grade Barrett’s dysplasia, hiatal hernia, achalasia, esophageal diverticula, and tracheal stenosis. Smita Sihag performs more than 200 operations per year at Memorial Sloan Kettering’s inpatient hospital in Manhattan. Patients have the option to see me in the clinic at the Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion in Manhattan or at MSK Nassau on Long Island.

Smita Sihag works closely with Smita Sihag's colleagues in medical, interventional, and radiation oncology to provide each individual patient with a personalized treatment plan that is specifically tailored to their needs. Patients, as well as their family members, caregivers, and primary care providers, are included in the decision-making process to ensure that they feel well supported. After meeting with me, Smita Sihag want patients to feel a sense of hope and comfort that they will be extremely well cared for. Smita Sihag also strives to offer patients access to the latest innovations and treatment options. Whenever possible, Smita Sihag use minimally invasive techniques to perform lung and esophageal surgery, including robotics and video-assisted thoracoscopy (VATs). These allow for the use of very small incisions and have been shown to lead to a smoother and faster recovery.

Smita Sihag became a thoracic surgical oncologist because surgery remains the best tool available to treat and cure cancers of the lung and esophagus. Smita Sihag also derive tremendous joy and fulfillment from performing challenging operations and helping patients have excellent outcomes. In addition to Smita Sihag's clinical work, Smita Sihag lead a research effort in collaboration with the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Molecular Oncology that is focused on discovering new therapeutic strategies to treat people with esophageal cancer. Our goal is to develop more precise tools for diagnosing and staging esophageal cancer, as well as predicting which patients will respond to certain treatments.

Smita Sihag is also involved with clinical trials investigating targeted treatments and immunotherapy for esophageal cancer, which represent promising areas of advancement in the field.