Dr. Garcia-Aguilar is Chief of the Colorectal Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering and holds the Benno C. Schmidt Chair in Surgical Oncology. His clinical program centres on sphincter-preserving and minimally invasive techniques that remove rectal and colon tumours while safeguarding continence and pelvic nerve function. Each case enters a multidisciplinary pathway that begins with high-resolution MRI, endoscopic staging and molecular profiling, enabling the team to align neoadjuvant therapy, surgery and surveillance with tumour biology.
Research defines his practice. As principal investigator of the randomized OPRA trial he showed that total-neoadjuvant therapy followed by selective surgery or watch-and-wait can achieve durable disease control with bowel preservation. Ongoing projects examine robotic exenteration for T4 tumours and ctDNA-guided monitoring after organ preservation. Publications in NEJM, Annals of Surgery and Journal of Clinical Oncology provide the evidentiary base that now shapes global guidelines for locally advanced rectal cancer.
Education and mentorship round out his profile. A graduate of Universidad Complutense Madrid, he completed general-surgery training at Beth Israel (Harvard) and a colorectal fellowship at the University of Minnesota before joining MSK. He directs international workshops on robotic beyond-TME dissection and chairs the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS) Masters Lectureship series, ensuring that innovations diffuse quickly and safely across practice settings.
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Insurance
Insurance changes all the time, so please call and confirm if your insurance is accepted.
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