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 Tumor-Secreted Protein That Promotes Lung Metastasis

Image of a mouse lung with staining to show blood vessels and dextran

A protein secreted by common cancer types makes blood vessels leakier to allow metastatic tumors to form in the lungs, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The discovery could lead to new ways of monitoring and reducing lung metastasis risk in cancer patients.

The researchers, whose findings appear Aug. 5 in Nature Cancer, sought to explain how some tumors enhance their ability to metastasize to the lungs by secreting tiny capsules and particles that carry proteins, DNA and other molecules. These extracellular vesicles and particles (EVPs) are secreted by virtually all cells as a way of signaling to other cells and helping to shape their environments—and tumors have adapted them for their own purposes. In the study, the researchers identified a protein called integrin alpha-5 as the cargo in a tumor-derived EVPs that promotes lung blood vessel leakiness and lung metastasis in several types of cancer.

Coordinating the Development of Heart Muscle and Vasculature

scientific image in blues, yellows and reds

During development, regional dips in oxygen levels serve as a signal that triggers the coordinated growth of heart muscle and coronary vessels, according to a study led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine. The findings, published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could point toward innovative approaches for treating cardiovascular conditions that lead to heart failure.

“The signaling pathways that direct the development of this remarkable organ are also affected in pathological conditions,” said Dr. Michael Harrison, assistant professor of cell and developmental biology and a member of the Cardiovascular Research Institute of Weill Cornell Medicine. “Interventions that target these signals or the cells that produce them could potentially change the trajectory of disease or slow its progression.”

Looking for the Leader

As a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Harrison explored how coronary vessels influence cardiac regeneration in zebrafish, a useful model for studying heart development and repair. “Looking through the literature, I realized that we knew very little about how coronary vessels develop in the first place,” he said.

A Promising Solution to a Cancer Drug Resistance Problem

H&E staining of blood cells

A protein that can dial down oxidative stress in cells helps some cancers resist treatment with a widely used class of drugs called BTK inhibitors, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. The discovery points to a possible solution to the problem of BTK inhibitor treatment resistance.

BTK inhibitors reduce the activity of the enzyme BTK (Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase), which has a central role in immune cells called B cells. Inhibiting BTK chokes off the ability of B cells to proliferate, which has benefits against some blood cancers including several types of lymphoma. Unfortunately, these malignancies often lose their sensitivity to BTK inhibitors after a year or two of treatment. In the study, published July 2 in Nature Communications, the researchers discovered that in mantle cell lymphoma, a common mechanism of resistance to BTK inhibitors involves aberrant activity of a protein called BRG1. They found that BRG1 protects cells from BTK-inhibitor treatment by suppressing a cell-killing process called ferroptosis, an iron-dependent form of cell death that BTK inhibitors otherwise induce.

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