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.

Scientists Identify a Molecular Switch to a Painful Side Effect of Chemotherapy

woman with neuropathy pain

Chemotherapy activates a stress sensor in immune cells, triggering inflammation and nerve damage, which may help explain why many cancer patients experience debilitating pain as a side effect, according to a new study by Weill Cornell Medicine and Wake Forest University School of Medicine researchers.

Up to half of all patients receiving chemotherapy experience chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN), which causes tingling, numbness and pain in the hands and feet. Since there are limited options to address this condition, patients are often forced to stop their cancer treatment early. The preclinical research, published Oct. 29 in Science Translational Medicine, may lead to strategies for preventing and controlling CIPN, as well as biomarkers for identifying patients at risk.

“We uncovered a molecular mechanism that maps specifically to immune cells, not neurons,” said co-senior author Dr. Juan Cubillos-Ruiz, the William J. Ledger, M.D. Distinguished Associate Professor of Infection and Immunology in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine. “This provides strong evidence that chemotherapy-induced neuropathy is not just a nerve issue but an immune-mediated inflammatory process driven by cellular stress responses.”

Common-Cold Coronavirus Could be the Key to a Better COVID-19 Vaccine

photo of a gloved hand inserting a syringe into a vial

Prior exposure to coronaviruses that cause ordinary colds can boost the immune system’s ability to attack a vulnerable site on the COVID-19-causing coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. The finding suggests a new vaccination strategy that might provide broader and more durable protection against SARS-CoV-2 strains compared with existing vaccines—and might also protect against other emergent coronaviral threats.

In the study, published Oct. 9 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, the researchers analyzed human antibody responses to the base of SARS-CoV-2’s outer spike protein. This segment, known as the S2 subunit, mediates the coronavirus’s entry into a host cell, and, because of this critical function, does not vary much between different coronavirus subfamilies. Thus, targeting it successfully could help provide broad protection against existing and future coronavirus threats. Although exposure to SARS-CoV-2 alone elicits a weak antibody response against S2, the researchers found evidence that prior exposure to common cold coronaviruses, especially one called OC43, can prime the immune system for a much more effective anti-S2 response—one that may be able to neutralize a wide range of coronaviruses.

Keeping Pediatrics Afloat in a Sea of Funding Cuts

A pediatrician examining a child with a stethoscope.

As Medicaid funding cuts enacted through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act are expected to reduce health coverage among adults, researchers and clinicians from Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian and Ariadne Labs argue in a New England Journal of Medicine perspective, published Nov. 1, that children are at increasing risk of unintended downstream effects.

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Dr. Beth McGinty

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