Dr. Christian J. Nelson serves as the Chief of the Psychiatry Service and Attending Psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is also a Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

Dr. Nelson specializes in the psychological care of older adults with cancer and patients with genitourinary malignancies. He works closely with the hospital’s Geriatric Disease Management team to provide psychological support for patients aged 65 and older. As the psychological liaison to the Genitourinary and Sexual Medicine Services, he also assists men experiencing treatment-related sexual dysfunction, working with them and their partners to optimize intimacy before, during, and after treatment.

Through his collaborations with the Symptom Management, Neurocognitive, and Psychotherapy laboratories, Dr. Nelson’s research focuses on understanding and addressing the impact of cancer on the quality of life for geriatric and prostate cancer patients. His specific research areas include developing geriatric-specific depression assessment tools and psychotherapies, exploring sexual dysfunction following cancer treatments, studying the cognitive effects of hormonal therapy in prostate cancer patients, and addressing distress in Black men with prostate cancer.