David G. Pfister MD

David G. Pfister, MD, is Chief of the Head and Neck Oncology Service and Co-Leader of the multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Disease Management Team at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is the Associate Chair for Alliance Programs in the Department of Medicine, Associate Deputy-in-Chief of Strategic Partnerships, and Co-Director of the MSK Center for HPV-Related Cancers. He also serves as Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Dr. Pfister received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, a fellowship as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar with an emphasis on clinical epidemiology at Yale University School of Medicine/Yale-New Haven Hospital, and subspecialty training at MSKCC. He is board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology.

Dr. Pfister is an internationally-recognized expert in the management of head and neck tumors and has pioneered the development of combined modality “organ preservation” treatment programs, intended to preserve function and cosmesis without compromise in survival. In addition to the development of combined modality-organ preservation therapies, his current research focuses on the evaluation of targeted therapies, the development of innovative therapies for rare tumors, and health care outcome assessments.

Dr. Pfister is former Co-Chair of the Head and Neck Cancer Recurrent/Metastatic Disease Task Force at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). He is also former Chair of the Protocol Committee for the International Thyroid Oncology Group (ITOG) and was also a member of the Board of Directors for that organization. He is a member of the Medical Advisory Board for Support for People with Oral and Head and Neck Cancer (SPOHNC).

Dr. Pfister is a member of the NCCN Board of Directors and chairs the NCCN Head and Neck Cancers Panel. He is an editorial board member for JNCCN – Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and serves on the NCCN Guidelines Steering Committee, as well as the NCCN Oncology Research Program.