Clinical research at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center is helping bring the advantages of robotic surgery, including reduced pain and quicker recovery, to kidney cancer patients.

There is a new option for patients suffering from hip pain who do not want to give up their active lifestyle. NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center is one of the first hospitals in the U.S. to offer a new alternative for total hip replacement: hip resurfacing. The technique allows the orthopedic surgeon to shave and cap several centimeters of bone within the hip joint, helping to preserve bone and joint stability for young or active patients. The Innovative Birmingham Hip Resurfacing™ System preserves more of the patient's natural bone structures and stability, covering the joint's surfaces with an all-metal implant that more closely resembles a tooth cap than a hip implant. This approach reduces post-operative risks of dislocation and inaccurate leg length, and because the all-metal implant is made from durable, smooth cobalt chrome, it has the potential to last longer than traditional hip implants.

To better reflect the quality and extent of the psychiatry programs and services offered at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City and Westchester, both locations will now operate under the Payne Whitney name. In New York City, Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic will now be known as Payne Whitney Manhattan, and, on the campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division, all psychiatry programs and services will now be known as Payne Whitney Westchester.

Parkinson's patients who underwent implantation of embryonic cells had better motor performance following the surgery than patients who didn't receive the cells, according to a paper published in the June issue of The Archives of Neurology by researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.

The Division of Vascular Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital has announced the opening of two new state-of-the-art surgical facilities dedicated to the minimally invasive treatment of atherosclerosis and other conditions of the vascular system. The facilities are located at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

The National Institute on Aging (NIA) has awarded Weill Cornell Medical College a $2 million grant over the next five years to fund an Edward R. Roybal Center for Research on Applied Gerontology, one of 12 such centers nationally. The grant will create the Cornell-Columbia Translational Research Institute on Pain in Later Life (TRIPLL), a multi-institutional and interdisciplinary collaboration focused on implementing innovative strategies for improving pain management among older adults.

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) involving nearly 17,000 U.S. smokers confirms that women are twice as likely to develop lung cancer as men. Paradoxically, the new findings also suggest that women are more likely than men to survive the disease, should it arise. The results of this international, multicenter study -- led by Dr. Claudia Henschke of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City -- could have important lessons for public health efforts aimed at reducing deaths due to smoking.

A new radiation therapy for prostate cancer -- Cesium-131 brachytherapy -- has fewer side effects than other treatments. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center is the only hospital in the Northeast to offer the new therapy. Brachytherapy involves the implantation of radioactive seeds into the tumor site. Radiation kills or arrests the growth of the cancer with minimal damage to healthy tissue. This helps prevent incontinence and preserve the nerves that allow for erection.