Latest Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University Stories

Weill Cornell Medical College Cost Effectiveness Study Looks at Potential Value of New Genetic Test for Guiding Chemotherapy Treatment For the 29,000 patients in the United States with metastatic colorectal cancer, chemotherapy with irinotecan is a standard treatment that has been shown to improve survival. But for more than one in 10 of these patients, a variation in their DNA means that this treatment could result in a severe reduction in their white blood cell count, leading to a high...

 Researchers from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center have discovered a new gene fusion that is highly expressed in a subset of prostate cancers. The results may lead to more accurate prostate cancer testing and new targets for potential treatments. Experts believe that gene fusions "” a hybrid gene formed from two previously separated genes "” may be at the root of what causes cancer cells to grow more quickly than normal cells.The new findings, published in the...

 Over the last four years, heart specialists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center have implanted an innovative aortic heart valve replacement using a catheter-based approach that does not require open-heart surgery in a total of 100 patients -- the most of any U.S. medical center to date.Open-heart surgery can require a two- to three-month recovery period, compared to only a few days for the transcatheter approach.The procedures were conducted as part of...

NEW YORK, July 16 /PRNewswire/ -- For the 19(th) consecutive year, Hospital for Special Surgery has ranked above all other hospitals in the Northeast in orthopedics. Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) ranks second in the nation in orthopedics by U.S. News & World Report in its 2009 "America's Best Hospitals" issue. Hospital for Special Surgery also ranked third in the nation for rheumatology and 24(th) for neurology. "This continuing recognition says a great deal about the talented...

NEW YORK, June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- A new report on infection rates from the New York State Department of Health singles out Hospital for Special Surgery as the only hospital in New York State with a statistically lower rate of surgical site infection (SSI) compared to the state average for hip replacement/revision surgery. "We emphasize infection control as a best practice," said Thomas P. Sculco, M.D., surgeon-in-chief of Hospital for Special Surgery, "and strive to maintain it at every...

Depression in older adults too often goes unrecognized and untreated, resulting in untold misery, worsening of medical illness, and early death. A new study has identified one important remedy: Adding a trained depression care manager to primary care practices can increase the number of patients receiving treatment, lead to a higher remission rate of depression, and reduce suicidal thoughts. The two-year outcomes of the multicenter Prevention of Suicide in Primary Care Elderly:...

For patients with the most common form of hepatitis C, the addition of a hepatitis C"“specific protease inhibitor called telaprevir to the current standard therapy can significantly improve the chances of being cured, and it does it in half the time of standard therapy alone.Results of the Phase IIb clinical trial "” led by Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) and 36 other sites, including NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center "” are published in the April 30th...

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar (WCMC-Q) have mapped a draft version of the date palm genome, unlocking many of its genetic secrets."We have generated a draft DNA sequence and initial assembly of the date palm using the most advanced technology," says Joel Malek, director of the Genomics Laboratory at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. Genetic information about the date palm is extremely valuable to researchers who are working to improve fruit yield and...

 Despite rapid strides in minimally invasive surgical techniques "” most notably, laparoscopy "” traditional open surgery remains the most common surgical option across the United States for people with diseases of the rectum and colon.A newer, third option is a hybrid "” hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery (HALS). The approach is safe and effective and compares favorably with standard laparoscopy, according to a team of colorectal surgical specialists at NewYork-Presbyterian...

Gene Therapy Studied for PreeclampsiaNew Clues to a Mysterious Pregnancy ConditionTo better understand preeclampsia, a sudden rise in maternal blood pressure and onset of kidney disease during pregnancy, researchers from Cornell University and Weill Cornell Medical College are studying mice that have the same affliction. Preeclampsia is the leading cause of both maternal and fetal death "” killing more than 500,000 women worldwide each year and causing 15 percent of all premature births...