Columbia University's integrative therapies program for children with cancer, located at Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian, and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia are conducting a study to determine if combining chemotherapy drugs with milk thistle could successfully treat liver toxicity, a toxic chemotherapy side effect in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Successful use of this herb would enable oncologists to continue with more aggressive, sustained chemotherapy regimens to treat ALL, which is the most common childhood cancer, accounting for one out of every three children with cancer. This trial marks the first time that milk thistle, an herb that has been widely tested in Europe for the treatment of liver disease (and studied extensively in clinical trials with adult liver disease patients), will be used in individuals with cancer.

Tumor size can predict the survival of a patient with the most common type of lung cancer, according to physician-scientists at NewYork Weill Cornell Medical Center.

A new laser technology has shown promising early results for the reversal of presbyopia, a progressive stiffening of the eye's lens that occurs with aging and compromises an individual's near vision, or the ability to read without glasses. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center, first in the New York City-area to offer the new procedure, is currently seeking participants for a Phase II clinical trial of the innovative technology, called OptiVision.

Weill Cornell Medical College's Department of Public Health has been awarded an impressive $1.6 million Ryan White Grant to study the benefits of information technology for those with HIV. The study intends to enroll patients, in part, through NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System's new HIV Special Needs Plan, known as NewYork-Presbyterian System Select Health. Select Health is expected to begin operations shortly upon licensure from New York State's Department of Health.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital now offers the revolutionary new CYPHER® Coronary Stent, the first drug-coated stent to receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of blocked coronary arteries. The new stent, which was approved on April 24, dramatically decreases the likelihood of restenosis, or re-blockage, of the coronary artery.

A team headed by a Weill Cornell Medical College scientist has shown that a virus-inhibiting antibody applied vaginally as a topical microbicide can prevent SHIV infection in a monkey model. A National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study provides evidence that microbicides can prevent virus attachment and entry into the vagina and its associated tissues, a useful step in the development of an effective method to prevent the spread of HIV.

A recent decision by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to increase access to high-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2) therapy for certain patients with life-threatening cancers is the result of a study by oncologists at nine centers nationwide, including Columbia University Medical Center at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

In support of the Hospital's commitment to We Put Patients First, NewYork-Presbyterian will become a completely smoke-free environment beginning August 10, 2009.