Samuel Singer, MD, FACS

Surgeon

4.9 | 234 reviews

Areas of Expertise

Conditions I Treat

Soft tissue sarcomas
Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST)
Desmoid tumor (benign)

My Specialties

Targeted therapy

View all

Request an Appointment

Our Care Advisors can answer many of your questions. They will connect you with the best healthcare provider for your needs.

English

Get to Know Me

I am a surgical oncologist who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of soft tissue sarcoma. I have extensive experience with this group of cancers, and am one of just a few surgeons in the world focused solely on treating sarcoma patients. My years of experience have enabled me to devise surgical techniques that improve the ability to completely remove these tumors.

I also have special expertise and experience in multimodality treatment, in which carefully planned surgery is combined, when appropriate, with radiation, chemotherapy, or targeted therapy.

I lead the Soft Tissue Sarcoma Disease Management Team at Memorial Sloan Kettering, which is a multidisciplinary group of soft tissue pathologists, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists who work closely together to provide the best treatment plan for each individual patient.

A challenge in treating soft tissue sarcomas is that there are more than 50 subtypes, each of which is relatively uncommon. Patients’ outcomes are generally substantially better when they are managed by the sort of multidisciplinary team of experts that we can provide, in a center of excellence that treats many people with sarcoma. Our team of soft tissue sarcoma experts likely has the most extensive experience with these tumors of any medical group in the world.

In addition to my clinical sarcoma practice, I conduct laboratory research to develop new methods to improve the diagnosis and treatment of sarcoma. I lead both a National Cancer Institute Specialized Program in Research Excellence (SPORE) and the Sarcoma Genome Project.

The immediate goal of our research is to increase our understanding of sarcoma biology by discovering the alterations in DNA and RNA that cause sarcomas to develop and progress. These findings allow us to improve both the accuracy of diagnosis and the accuracy of predicting treatment outcome and survival for individual patients. These better predictions, in turn, will make it possible for patients to be given the treatment (such as a specific targeted therapy, chemotherapy, or radiation) most likely to be effective for their particular tumor.

Another goal of the research is to find new targeted therapies aimed specifically at alterations in particular tumor types. Examples of targeted therapies that I have been actively involved in developing and designing include anti-angiogenesis therapy for soft tissue sarcoma, imatinib (Gleevec^®) for gastrointestinal stromal sarcoma, and cell cycle kinase inhibitor therapies (CDK4, AURKA, and PLK1), demethylating agents, HDAC inhibitors, and PPAR gamma ligands for various liposarcomas.

I am optimistic that this research will ultimately improve survival and quality of life for patients with soft tissue sarcoma.

What I Do at MSK

A surgeon is a doctor with special training in many kinds of surgery.

Chief, Gastric and Mixed Tumor Service
Vincent Astor Chair of Clinical Research

Conditions I Treat

Soft tissue sarcomas
Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST)
Desmoid tumor (benign)

My Specialties

Targeted therapy

Education

MD, Harvard University

Residencies

General Surgery - Brigham and Women's Hospital

Fellowships

Oncology - Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory

Board Certifications

Surgery

Awards and Honors

Castle Connolly: America’s Top Doctor (2025)
Castle Connolly: America’s Top Doctor (2024)
Top Doctors New York Metro Area, Castle Connolly (2023)
Castle Connolly: America's Top Doctors (2023)
Castle Connolly: New York Magazine Top Doctors (2003-2010, 2019-2020)

Insurance Information

Make an Appointment

New Patients

Scheduling an appointment is easy. Click or call 646-497-9072— we’re available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Make an Appointment

Current Patients

Request an appointment by logging in to MSK MyChart or calling your Care Team. If you are not enrolled in MSK MyChart, ask your Care Team to send you an invitation. You can also go to MSK MyChart and select “Sign up now.”

Contact and Location

Dr. Singer sees patients at one location.

Office Phone

212-639-2940

Location

New York, NY

Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion

160 East 53rd Street New York NY 10022

Get Directions

Looking to see a doctor at a different location? See all MSK locations.

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 Gastric and Mixed Tumor Service doctors

See all Surgery doctors

Clinical Trials

Clinical Trials Co-Investigated by Dr. Singer
A Study Assessing a Lower Dose of Radiation Therapy after Surgery for Soft Tissue Sarcoma of the Arms and Legs

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.

Search clinical trials

Research and Publications

View Dr. Singer's Lab

Cancer Genome Atlas Network. Comprehensive and integrated characterization of adult soft tissue sarcomas. Cell 2017; 171(4): 950-965.

Mazzu YZ, Hu Y, Soni RK, Mojica KM, Qin LX, Agius P, Waxman ZM, Mihailovic A, Socci ND, Hendrickson RC, Tuschl T, Singer S. 2017. miR-193b-regulated signaling networks serve as tumor suppressors in liposarcoma and promote adipogenesis in adipose-derived stem cells. Cancer Res 2017; 77: 5728-40.

Okada T, Lee AY, Qin LX, Agaram N, Mimae T, Shen Y, O’Connor R, Lopez-Lago MA, Craig A, Miller ML, Agius P, Molinelli E, Socci ND, Crago AM, Shima F, Sander C, Singer S. Integrin-alpha10 dependency identifies RAC and RICTOR as therapeutic targets in high-grade myxofibrosarcoma. Cancer Discov 2016; 6(10): 1148-1165.

Lee AY, Agaram NP, Qin LX, Kuk D, Curtin C, Brennan MF, Singer S. Optimal percent myxoid component to predict outcome in high-grade myxofibrosarcoma and undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma. Ann Surg Oncol 2016; 23(3):818-25.

Tan MC, Brennan MF, Kuk D, Agaram NP, Antonescu CR, Qin LX, Moraco N, Crago AM, Singer S. Histology-based classification predicts pattern of recurrence and improves risk stratification in primary retroperitoneal sarcoma. Ann Surg 2016;263(3):593-600.

Brennan MF, Antonescu CR, Moraco N, Singer S. Lessons learned from the study of 10,000 patients with soft tissue sarcoma. Ann Surg 2014; 260:416-422.

Publications on PubMed

Visit PubMed for a full listing of Dr. Singer’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

Patient Reviews

Your trust is our main concern

We strive to keep reviews trustworthy, honest and fair. Learn more about our patient experience reviews.

4.9 234 reviews

4.8 Provider's Explanations Easy to Understand
4.9 Trusts Provider with Care
4.8 Provider Listened Carefully
4.9 Likelihood of Recommending Provider

Mar 18, 2025

This was a great experience. Even though I spent the whole day in it's worth it. I went home confident.

Mar 18, 2025

I waited 2 hours before I was finally taken in the room and then waited additional time. It was known that Dr. Singer was running late and we were not informed upon checking in. The people at check in told us they have no way of knowing how late a provider is running. There should be some way you can be informed of such a long wait and we could have gone to Starbucks and relaxed instead of sitting in the waiting area for such a long time.

Mar 11, 2025

The televisit is an outstanding tool to have a face to face visit with Dr. Singer.The quality of the video and audio was very good. This relieves a lot of stress on the patient to avoid travel to the main hospital in Manhattan. For me, the trip would be about 1.5 hours each way, plus traffic and parking issues, and cost. Thank you for providing this valuable service to your patients.

Mar 11, 2025

I owe my survival to Dr. Samuel Singer and his team, Ethel, Kelly & Kelly. I have just completed a second serious surgery at MSK under their care and believe my future continued progress can only be achieved with their superb care.

Mar 11, 2025

THANKS A LOT!!!

View more +

Ratings and Comments Powered by NRC Health

Disclosures

Doctors and faculty members 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.

MSK requires doctors and faculty members 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.

Samuel Singer discloses the following relationships and financial interests:

No disclosures meeting criteria for time period

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, 2023 through disclosure submission in spring 2024). 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.

View all disclosures