About Memorial Sloan-Kettering: The world's oldest and largest private cancer center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) has devoted more than a century to patient care as well as to innovative research, making significant contributions to new and better therapies for the treatment of cancer. Founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital by a group that included John J. Astor and his wife, Charlotte, the original building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan began its move to its present location on York Avenue in 1936 when John D. Rockefeller, Jr. donated the land upon which, in 1939, Memorial Hospital was constructed. Between 1970 and 1973, a new Memorial Hospital was constructed and this building stands on the site today. In the 1940s, two former General Motors executives, Alfred P. Sloan and Charles F. Kettering, joined forces to establish the Sloan-Kettering Institute (SKI). (source: MSKCC.org)