Physicians at New York Weill Cornell Medical Center are seeking participants with chronic pain from cancer to undergo two different kinds of psychotherapy to determine which may be more effective in helping them cope with their pain.

Derek Jeter will announce today that he will serve as spokesperson for Children's Hospital of New York, a part of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, from the present through June 30, 2004. Children's Hospital of New York is the largest provider of children's health services in the tri-state area, offering outstanding care in every area of pediatrics, including the most complex neonatal and critical care and all areas of pediatric surgery and surgical subspecialties.

Fibroids -- noncancerous growths in the uterus -- are very common, occurring in as many as 40 percent of women as they approach menopause. The discomfort, pain, and bleeding they cause have led many women to have a hysterectomy -- removal of the uterus. Excluding cancer, however, hysterectomy is usually unnecessary, and there is a tremendous need for educating women and their doctors about fibroids and the alternative, less invasive ways of treating this condition.

A new mechanism for cell survival and cell death -- a paradigm describing the regulation of the growth factors called neurotrophins -- has been discovered by scientists in the Division of Hematology-Oncology of the Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Their findings have significant practical implications for possible new treatments and methods of screening for many conditions, ranging from Alzheimer's disease to atherosclerosis.

One of the marvels of life is how the nervous systems of organisms can operate so rapidly and precisely, governing motion and consciousness. Nerve cells, like other cells, have membranes spanned by potassium-conducting channel proteins, but exactly how do these channel proteins work? Now, several papers in the November 1 issue of Nature, including one by Benoît Roux and Simon Bernèche of Weill Cornell Medical College, answer this question in dazzling detail, greatly deepening our understanding of some of the basic phenomena of the living world.

Drs. Roberto Levi and Randi Silver ­report on studies showing how the activation of a histamine receptor, the H3-receptor, limits this release of noradrenaline via two independent systems, based on the intracellular concentrations of calcium and sodium. The research suggests a novel, potential therapeutic approach to heart attack, or to myocardial ischemia in general.

Camp Phoenix, a program run entirely by students at Weill Cornell Medical College, provides a free, safe, nurturing, fun-filled experience to former patients, ages 7-12, who have been treated at the Hearst Burn Center of NewYork-Presbyterian’s Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Preserving organs on ice prior to transplantation, an approach known as cold storage or CS, has been the standard practice in liver transplant for 20 years. Now there is new evidence that a technique called hypothermic machine perfusion (HMP) may offer an improvement, according to the first-ever study comparing the impact of the two techniques on transplant outcomes.