A certain combination of AIDS drugs is superior to others when it comes to the initial treatment of HIV patients, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center researchers report in this week's (April 29) New England Journal of Medicine.

Minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery, when performed by experienced surgeons, is a safe and effective alternative to standard open surgery for most patients with cancer that is confined to the colon. That is the main finding of a seven-year international study, which will be published in the May 13 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center is the largest New York City-area contributor to the study.

Colorectal cancer is the second leading cancer killer of men and women in the U.S., yet it is also the most preventable form of cancer. Studies show that more than 90 percent of lives could be saved through the early detection and treatment of colorectal cancer, says Dr. Mark Pochapin, Director of the Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. But a mix of ignorance, misinformation,and embarrassment about the disease is killing people — many of whom would go on to live a full life if they had the right information and the right screenings.

A drug duo appears to be a safe and effective way to prevent a serious condition called graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) in youngsters undergoing a stem cell transplant, researchers from Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center report in the April issue of the journal Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

A patient with metastatic brain cancer has become the first in the New York City area to receive the unique GliaSite Radiation Therapy System (RTS). A team of neurosurgeons and radiation specialists led by neurosurgeon Dr. Susan Pannullo performed this procedure at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Dead and dying nerve cells directly affected by stroke, other injury, or neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's are known to trigger cell death, or apoptosis, in their healthy neighbors. This cell death cascade is often more devastating than the original injury in terms of brain and spinal cord damage. But new evidence in an animal model suggests that these neurons could be saved.

Three promising and innovative prostate cancer therapies are currently being investigated in clinical trials at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Like the film Fantastic Voyage, physicians at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center can now take a journey through a patient's body. They aren't inside a miniaturized submarine but rather watching images taken by a tiny camera inside a pill-like device that is swallowed by the patient. The procedure, called capsule endoscopy, has proven to be effective in aiding diagnosis of previously undetectable abnormalities in the small intestine that commonly result in gastrointestinal bleeding.