Dr. Schilsky earned his M.D. at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 1975. Following a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Memorial Hospital, he received training in Medical Oncology and Clinical Pharmacology at the National Cancer Institute from 1977 to 1981. He then served as Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine from 1981-1984 when he returned to the University of Chicago. At the University of Chicago, he served as Director of the Cancer Research Center from 1991-1999 and as Associate Dean for Clinical Research from 1999-2007. Since 1995, Dr. Schilsky has also served as Chairman of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B, an NCI-funded cooperative group.

An international expert in gastrointestinal malignancies and cancer pharmacology, he has served on a number of peer review and advisory committees for the NCI and the FDA. He has served as a member and Chair of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee for the FDA, and presently serves as a member of the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors and the NCI Clinical Trials Advisory Committee. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and currently serves as ASCO President 2008-2009.

He is a member of the external advisory committees of several comprehensive cancer centers including the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, the Mayo Cancer Center, the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the University of California at San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer center and the Simmons Cancer Center at UT-Southwestern.

Dr. Schilsky is an Associate Editor of Clinical Cancer Research and a member of the editorial board of Seminars in Oncology and the Journal of Cancer Research and Clinical Oncology. He has published more than 250 articles and book chapters in the medical literature and has edited 4 books.