The Associated Medical Schools of New York (AMSNY) brings you the following compilation of the most recent updates and news on research from the academic medical centers in the state.
Highlights
Cancer
- Precision Medicine for Kids with Cancer: At Columbia, Every Pediatric Tumor is Sequenced
- Immunotherapy: New Hope for Patients with Advanced Lung Cancer
- Geography Matters: Imaging Overuse Seen for Breast & Prostate Cancer in Certain Regions Across the U.S.
Cardiology
- Imaging Test Detect Coronary Disease Long Before it Strikes
- Study Finds Physicians Want to Learn More About Diet & Cardiovascular Disease Prevention
- Pollution Levels Linked to Stroke-Related Narrowing of Arteries
- Combination Mitral Valve Surgery with Surgical Ablation Frees Patients of Atrial Fibrillation
- New Study Shows Novel Anticoagulation Therapy Fails to Improve Angioplasty Patient Outcomes
- NYU Langone Establishes First-of-its-Kind Center to Diagnose & Treat Deadly Blood Clots
Genetics
Neurology
- New Quality Measures Approved for Childhood Sleep Apnea
- Approved Drug Boosts Myelination; May Help Treat Multiple Sclerosis
- Simple Sidelines Test Shown Effective in Diagnosing Concussion in Student Athletesas Young as 5 Years Old
- Sleep-Walking Neurons: Brain’s GPS Never Stops Working–Even During Sleep
Other Studies
- Risk Patterns Identified that Make People More Vulnerable to PTSD
- Kidney Transplant Tolerance Mechanism Identified
- Novel Drug Candidate Regenerates Pancreatic Cells Lost in Diabetes
- Psychiatry Finds its Stride and Shows Potential for Making Progress
Researchers at the Academic Medical Centers
Funds for Research
Precision Medicine for Kids with Cancer: At Columbia, Every Pediatric Tumor is Sequenced
Immunotherapy: New Hope for Patients with Advanced Lung Cancer
March 12, 2015 – In the late 1800s, a New York surgeon named William Coley noticed that some patients with cancer seemed to fare better if they developed an infection after undergoing surgery. Suspecting that the immune system played a role in this mysterious response, he tried treating cancer patients with bacteria in an effort to turn on the immune system. Coley’s bold experiments largely failed, however, and faded into obscurity as other cancer treatments, such as radiation and chemotherapy, were put into practice.
Geography Matters: Imaging Overuse Seen for Breast & Prostate Cancer in Certain Regions Across the U.S.
March 12, 2015 – Researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center and its Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, in a new retrospective study publishing online March 12 in JAMA Oncology, conclude that patients with low-risk prostate or breast cancer were more or less likely to receive inappropriate imaging during treatment, depending on the region of the country in which they received medical care.
Imaging Test Detect Coronary Artery Disease Long Before it Strikes
Study Finds Physicians Want to Learn More About Diet & Cardiovascular Disease Prevention
March 16, 2015 – Most physicians are aware of the importance of lifestyle factors in preventing cardiovascular disease (CVD)–and believe diet is as important as statin therapy and exercise, according to a new survey from NYU Langone Medical Center.
Pollution Levels Linked to Stroke-Related Narrowing of Arteries
Combination Mitral Valve Surgery with Surgical Ablation Frees Patients of Atrial Fibrillation
March 16, 2015 – New study results by The Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network (CTSN) show the addition of surgical ablation during mitral valve surgery reduces the occurrence of atrial fibrillation in patients.
New Study Shows Novel Anticoagulation Therapy Fails to Improve Angioplasty Patient Outcomes
March 15, 2015 – New study results by The Cardiothoracic Surgical Trials Network (CTSN) show the addition of surgical ablation during mitral valve surgery reduces the occurrence of atrial fibrillation in patients.
NYU Langone Establishes First-of-its-Kind Center to Diagnose & Treat Deadly Blood Clots
March 5, 2015 – NYU Langone Medical Center has announced the creation of a new multidisciplinary Venous Thromboembolic Center (VTEC) to treat those with life-threating blood clot
. The new VTEC delivers advanced detection, comprehensive care and effective management for patients experiencing a venous thromboembolic event.
Take a closer look.
© 2015 NYU Langone Medical Center. All rights reserved.
Experimental Herpes Vaccine Upends Traditional Approach and Shows Promise
New Quality Measures Approved for Childhood Sleep Apnea
March 13, 2015 – A work group of physicians from leading academic medical centers across the country, including NYU Langone Medical Center, has developed new quality measures for the detection and treatment of childhood obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a potentially morbid, life-altering condition that affects hundreds of thousands of children and adolescents nationwide. The measures, commissioned and endorsed by the American Association of Sleep Medicine (AASM), are published on March 15 in a special section of The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
Approved Drug Boosts Myelination; May Help Treat Multiple Sclerosis
March 6, 2015 – University at Buffalo researchers are the first to identify solifenacin as a drug target to promote stem cell therapy for myelin-based disease, such as multiple sclerosis.
© 2015 School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo. All rights reserved.
Simple Sideline Test Shown Effective in Diagnosing Concussion in Student Athletes as Young as 5 Years Old
Sleep-Walking Neurons: Brain’s GPS Never Stops Working–Even During Sleep
March 2, 2015 – Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have found that navigational brain cells that help sense direction are as electrically active during deep sleep as they are during wake time—and have visual and vestibular cues to guide them. Such information could be useful in treating navigational problems, among the first major symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders.
Risk Patterns Identified that Make People More Vulnerable to PTSD
March 16, 2015 – Researchers have built a new computational tool that identifies 800 different ways people are at increased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), permitting for the first time a personalized prediction guide.
Kidney Transplant Tolerance Mechanism Identified
March 16, 2015 – Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have pinpointed the immune system mechanism that allows a kidney transplant to be accepted without lifelong immunosuppressive drugs, a significant step toward reducing or eliminating the need for costly and potentially toxic immunosuppressant drugs and improving long-term transplant success. The findings were published in the Jan. 28 online issue of Science Translational Medicine
Novel Drug Candidate Regenerates Pancreatic Cells Lost in Diabetes
March 9, 2015 – In a screen of more than 100,000 potential drugs, only one, harmine, drove human insulin-producing beta cells to multiply, according to a study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, funded by JDRF and the National Institutes of Health, and published online today in Nature Medicine.
Take a closer look.
© 2015 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. All rights reserved.
Pyshicatry Finds its Stride and Shows Potential for Making Progress
March 6, 2015 – Few fields of medicine are as misunderstood as psychiatry. The field predates the technology needed to truly understand the brain, so for decades psychiatry existed as an unscientific discipline, lacking an empirical foundation. Also, the definition of “mental illness” has been susceptible to cultural variability and has changed with time, revealing more about the prejudices of an era than the true nature of the illness. Homosexuality, for example, was defined as a mental disorder in the DSM until 1974. This combination of factors provided fertile ground for charlatans and purveyors of pseudoscience.