Patients with serious degenerative spinal disease, a painful condition in which the normal function of spinal vertebrae breaks down, are presented with what can be a confusing array of surgical options. A NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center study looks at five spinal fusion approaches, finding that the use of an anterior cervical plate system, a device used to hold the vertebrae together, significantly increases the fusion rate, a measure of the procedure's success.

Over 20 million Americans suffer from back pain caused by the derangement of an intervertebral disk. After the common cold, back pain is the second most common cause that Americans call in sick, costing businesses as much as $100 billion every year. With the goal of preventing this all-too-common ailment, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital's Spine Center offers tips on avoiding back injury.

The third most common childhood cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), affects 800 new children nationally every year. The Second International Symposium on Pediatric Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, the largest event of its kind, will feature the world's pre-eminent physician-scientists and their presentations of new scientific and clinical research. The Symposium is organized by Dr. Mitchell Cairo of Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia University Medical Center.

One of the country's pre-eminent physicians and a distinguished and well-known spokesperson in the medical media, Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld has been named the recipient of the 26th Annual Maurice R. Greenberg Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor bestowed by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center on a member of its professional staff. The award, which recognizes Dr. Rosenfeld's many years of outstanding service to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College, consists of a $50,000 grant made possible through an endowment from Maurice R. Greenberg. The award presentation will be made at a gala dinner on Thursday, May 4, at the Pierre Hotel.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital ranks seventh in the country, according to the 2005 U.S.News & World Report "America's Best Hospitals" survey. NewYork-Presbyterian is the only New York metropolitan-area hospital included in the publication's 2005 Honor Roll, an achievement that the hospital has marked for five consecutive years. The Honor Roll lists the top 16 hospitals nationally based on reputation, mortality rates, and other care-related factors.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved REVLIMID® (lenalidomide) as a treatment for multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer. The oral treatment regimen, which includes a combination of REVLIMID plus the steroid drug dexamethasone, is indicated for relapsed patients who have failed one or more lines of therapy with other chemotherapy agents. Of all the centers participating in the Phase III clinical trial demonstrating significant patient benefit and leading to the approval, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center's Multiple Myeloma Center had the greatest number of enrolled patients in the United States. Approval was given after the results of clinical trials in which patients who took REVLIMID and dexamethasone survived an average of nearly 30 months. In contrast, patients on dexamethasone and placebo survived a little over 20 months. Multiple myeloma is incurable and one of the most deadly of all cancers with a typical life expectancy of four years following diagnosis. Results were presented at an oral session during the 42nd American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Atlanta in June 2006.

Flu season is approaching again, and parents should know that fall is the time to have your children immunized. This is especially important for children with asthma and other high-risk medical problems.

Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian has made such a dramatic impact on the life of 14-year-old Katherine Urena that her family is traveling to Washington, DC today to share their story with representatives from the offices of Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer as well as other members of Congress. For the second year in a row, the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI) Family Advocacy Day is bringing in dozens of families from across the country to speak about the children's hospitals that have saved their lives and have served them so well. Thirty families from 17 different states will be at this year's conference on June 13 and 14.