In a study of previously untreated patients with low-grade or follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, all patients achieved a response with Bexxar (tositumomab, iodine I 131 tositumomab) in combination with fludarabine. The addition of Bexxar to fludarabine increased the rate of complete response five-fold, as compared to initial treatment with fludarabine alone, with the rate of complete response continuing to increase over time.

A promising new treatment protocol of Interleukin II (IL-2) is currently under development as an immune stimulant for HIV-positive individuals who have responded to medication but have not achieved recovery of their immune system. Pioneered by researchers at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, this low-dose, non-toxic regimen is now being investigated in clinical trials.

Dr. Herbert Pardes has been elected President and Chief Executive Officer of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital by a unanimous action of its Board of Trustees, it was announced today by Daniel B. Burke and John F. McGillicuddy, Co-Chairs of the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Board of Trustees. Dr. Pardes was also elected Chief Executive Officer of NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System, Inc.

New York Weill Cornell Center of New York Presbyterian Hospital has become the first medical institution in the New York metropolitan area to provide hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery to patients afflicted with urologic disease of the kidney, ureter, and bladder.

Investigators have determined that moderate alcohol consumption by the elderly reduces the risk of the most common type of stroke.

Scientists have successfully used a new technique to identify the genetic mutation that causes sickle cell anemia. For the first time, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has resulted in the birth of healthy twin girls to a couple where both partners were carriers for the sickle cell trait.

The brain under general anesthesia isn't "asleep" as surgery patients are often told -- it is placed into a state that is a reversible coma, according to three neuroscientists who have published an extensive review of general anesthesia, sleep and coma, in the Dec. 30 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. This insight and others reported in their review article could eventually lead to new approaches to general anesthesia and improved diagnosis and treatment for sleep abnormalities and emergence from coma.

One of only a handful of physicians with formal training in both vascular surgery and interventional radiology, Dr. Darren B. Schneider has been appointed chief of vascular and endovascular surgery and director of the Center for Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He has also been named associate professor of surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College.