Obstetrics & Gynecology

News and Events

Programs and providers of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine are often the focus of news stories and features appearing in major national media. We invite you to review some stories that typify the breakthrough accomplishments of our remarkable team and highlight the impact our care has had on patient’s lives.

Fixing America’s Nursing Home Crisis Requires New Ideas and Strategies

Elder woman using walking cane at nursing home with nurse holding hand for support.

As the oldest Baby Boomers turn 80, the country’s nursing homes are bracing for an anticipated surge. The number of people who need help with dementia, disabilities and the activities of daily living is growing at a time when the number of nursing home beds is shrinking. Nearly 10% of nursing homes in the United States closed between 2011 and 2021. In addition, direct care providers are leaving the industry in droves.

In a perspective published July 4 in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Mark A. Unruh and Dr. Hye-Young Jung, both associate professors of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine, along with Dr. Vincent Mor of Brown University, warn that the mismatch between need and capacity will strain families, hospitals and healthcare systems across the country if nothing is done to reverse it. They also offer insights and recommendations to help solve what they call a serious and unprecedented healthcare crisis.

“We hope the article will increase awareness of an important issue that will affect many families across the country in the coming years but has received little attention,” Dr. Jung said.

PSA Levels Alone May Not Reflect Prostate Cancer Growth

woman

Patients with advanced prostate cancer may need periodic imaging scans to catch tumor growth even with stable levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein in the blood that doctors routinely monitor for cancer progression, according to an analysis led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Duke University. In some cases, cancer progression was detected on scans even when PSA levels were undetectable.

The recent study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, analyzed data from more than 2,500 men enrolled in two multinational phase 3 clinical trials testing enzalutamide to slow or stop tumor growth in patients with advanced prostate cancer. This drug targets the androgen receptor, a protein that prostate cancer cells use to receive growth signals from male hormones such as testosterone. The trials (ARCHES and PROSPER) assessed cancer spread or growth on imaging scans, alongside changes in PSA levels during treatment. The researchers examined cases of radiographic progression—when cancer growth or spread is detected by imaging such as X-rays, CT scans or bone scans.

Rare Stem T Cells May Hold the Key to Fighting Chronic Diseases

illustration of a T cell

T cells are an elite fighting force of the immune system, seeking out and destroying diseased cells. But in a prolonged campaign against a chronic condition — like a viral infection, or cancer — the body needs a steady supply of these killer troops. Where and how these killer troops are generated has been a mystery.

That led a team of scientists from Weill Cornell Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) to dig deeper. They found that a small subset of T cells, called stem T cells, are responsible for making new T cells and for continuously replenishing them in chronic disease. Importantly, these rare stem T cells express a protein called LEF1.

The team’s findings in laboratory models, published July 1 in Cell, showed that focusing on this population of LEF1-positive T cells is key. Boosting LEF1-positive cells overcame T cell “exhaustion” in the case of chronic infection. And removing them was successful in reining in overactive immune cells in the case of type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease.

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