An estimated 2.5 million people in the United States suffer the debilitating effects of epilepsy, and for many, an ordinary activity such as driving a car can be dangerous due to the possible onset of seizures. A new breakthrough treatment offered by The Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center may provide many patients with significant improvement in seizure control and an overall better quality of life.

Heart disease and cancer, the two leading causes of death in the US, may have a common genetic cause, according to new research. Atherosclerosis, like some forms of cancer, may be linked to a mutation in a single cell that could spread and cause disease. Atherosclerosis, or blockage of the coronary arteries, is the most common cause of heart disease.

A lack of awareness of vulvar vestibulitis -- a condition associated with excruciating pain and burning of the vulva where sexual intercourse is virtually impossible -- has, in the past, left many women and physicians frustrated. However, doctors in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Division of Infection and Immunology at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center have found that an accurate diagnosis and effective medical or surgical treatment of the disease can be achieved in the majority of cases.

One child in 2,000 in the United States has a misshapen head resulting from a birth defect in which the bones of the skull prematurely close. The condition, called craniosynostosis, can constrict growth of the child's brain and lead to vision problems. An improved treatment option at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian gives surgeons greater control in reshaping the skull.

Reaffirming a unique example of international cooperation between an American medical school and a Middle Eastern country, His Highness the Emir of the State of Qatar visited New York Weill Cornell Medical Center tonight and extended condolences for the World Trade Center tragedy and condemned terrorism. The Emir also made a donation of one million dollars to the Medical Center's burn unit, where the most severely injured patients from the trade center disaster are being cared for.

Researchers at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have discovered that tumor angiogenesis is dependent upon the recruitment and incorporation of bone-marrow-derived precursor cells into newly formed tumor vessels.

Research from Weill Medical College of Cornell University and other institutions provides new evidence that the sex steroid hormone progesterone is also a vasoactive hormone that directly affects blood vessels. This finding sheds light on both the drop in blood pressure that usually accompanies pregnancy (when progesterone levels are high) and the rise in blood pressure that often occurs in women after menopause (when the production of progesterone falls off). It may also focus and sharpen the debate on the value of female hormones in long-term cardiovascular protection.

A new study by the physicians of the Early Lung Cancer Action Project reports that with annual computed tomography screenings false positives were uncommon, and 83% of the lung cancers discovered were in the earliest, most curable stage.