A 61-old man was the first in the New York City-area to receive a new, less-invasive alternative to open-heart surgery with the Evalve® Cardiovascular Valve Repair System (CVRS) to treat mitral valve regurgitation (MR). Physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia are conducting a Phase I clinical trial of the new treatment. At present, surgery is the only effective method of treatment for severe chronic MR, a defect in which the heart's mitral valve fails to close properly, resulting in abnormal flow of blood, weakening of the heart, and potentially leading to congestive heart failure.

Bone complications associated with prostate cancer cause a substantial economic burden, according to a new study led by a physician-scientist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center and presented today at the American Society of Clinical Oncology's (ASCO) 40th Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

Men with androgen-independent (hormone-refractory) metastatic prostate cancer treated with the breast-cancer drug Taxotere® (docetaxel) Injection Concentrate in combination with the drug estramustine survived 20 percent longer than similar patients receiving the standard therapy, according to a landmark Phase III study authored by physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, and published in today's New England Journal of Medicine.

The Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health, one of only a few comprehensive cancer and wellness centers in the U.S. exclusively dedicated to gastrointestinal health, opened today at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Named in honor of Jay Monahan the late husband of NBC TODAY show co-anchor Katie Couric who died at age 42 of colon cancer, the Center will serve as a unique integrated model for comprehensive and compassionate patient and family care. The Center will offer an array of services, from state-of-the-art prevention and early detection to treatment, research, education and community outreach.

Two physician-scientists from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital were co-authors of a new study which demonstrates that earlier laser treatment for certain premature infants resulted in an overall better vision outcome. Results of the multi-center clinical trial, sponsored by the National Eye Institute (NEI), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and published in the December issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology, give physicians new, improved treatment options for Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), a blinding disease that affects premature, low-birth-weight infants and is a leading cause of vision loss in children.

Children undergoing a stem cell transplant to treat leukemia, blood disorders or other types of cancer can safely undergo a less toxic treatment regimen than one that is traditionally used, report researchers from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center in the journal Bone Marrow Transplantation.

A simple blood test may detect whether a chronic heart transplant patient is rejecting their heart, and may reduce the need for invasive heart-muscle biopsies, according to the results of a multi-center study called CARGO (Cardiac Allograft Rejection Gene Expression Observational Study), led by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center and published in the December 19 The American Journal of Transplantation. The findings describe a new methodology that may impact the way heart transplant patients are treated. The four-year, eight-site CARGO study included data from centers accounting for approximately 22 percent of the yearly U.S. heart transplant population.

For years, experts have puzzled over the fact that lupus patients often experience accelerated declines in thinking and memory as they age, despite the absence of the usual neurological culprits, such as neurovascular inflammation or stroke. Now a husband-and-wife team of researchers, including Dr. Bruce T. Volpe, Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and Attending Neurologist at New-York Presbyterian Hospital and Burke Medical Research Institute in White Plains, say they have a new approach to this puzzle that may open the door to treatments that slow or prevent lupus-related cognitive decline.