NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center, together with the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), announced that its landmark study comparing the safety and efficacy of drug-eluting stents and bare-metal stents was published in the May 7 New England Journal of Medicine. The study, HORIZONS-AMI (Harmonizing Outcomes with RevascularIZatiON and Stents in Acute Myocardial Infarction), showed that in heart attack patients undergoing angioplasty, the use of paclitaxel-eluting stents reduces rates of target lesion revascularization (TLR) and binary angiographic restenosis when compared to the use of bare-metal stents after one year.

Dr. Fabrizio Michelassi, the Lewis Atterbury Stimson Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College and Surgeon-in-Chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, is the newly elected president of the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO), the premier national and international professional organization for the field.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center has established a new Prostate Cancer Institute, dedicated to pursuing aggressive and innovative prostate cancer treatments while providing patient care in a comfortable and compassionate setting. Dr. Ashutosh Tewari, a leading robotic urologic surgeon, has been appointed as its director.

The Weill Cornell Institute of Geriatric Psychiatry at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division announced today it has received the largest grant in its 20-year history. One of a handful awarded nationally, the new $10 million, five-year "Center Grant" from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) will enable NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell investigators to advance their pioneering work in understanding the biological, medical, cognitive and psychosocial problems of depressed seniors. The grant is one of the largest ever given by NIMH to study geriatric depression.

Neurosurgeons from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center performed the world's first intra-arterial cerebral infusion of Avastin (bevacizumab) directly into a patient's malignant brain tumor. This novel technique may expose the cancer to higher doses of the drug therapy, while possibly sparing the patient common side effects of receiving the drug intravenously or throughout their body.

A breakthrough new laser procedure is a safe and effective treatment for the most common ailment experienced by men over the age of 50, Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) or enlargement of the prostate. Almost half of all men over 50 experience some symptoms related to BPH, a condition where the prostate increases in size, gradually pinching the urethra, leading to a host of uncomfortable and painful symptoms.

An estimated 50 percent of stroke survivors suffer from partial paralysis on one side of their body, and only 5 percent of those who receive rehabilitation therapy ever regain full control of their arm. Now, a new high-tech arm brace may better those odds and help millions of patients to regain the ability to perform everyday tasks like washing, getting dressed and driving.

Dr. Donald Landry, chairman of medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, was honored with the Presidential Citizens Medal in recognition of his contributions to expanding human knowledge and improving patient treatment.