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.

Research at Risk: Stopping Metastatic Cancer

woman pointing at a computer screen while another woman looks on

Video of Research at Risk: Stopping metastatic cancer

Metastasis. It’s the word cancer patients dread most – and the scan with ominous black spots showing the disease has spread. For too many people, metastatic cancer is kept at bay only for a short time, with chemotherapy and radiation, before the disease returns or the harsh treatments fatally weaken the body.

For more than 20 years, Dr. Nancy Du, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and the Rasweiler Family Research Scholar in Cancer Research at Weill Cornell Medicine, has researched how metastatic cancer arises. With a $500,000 grant over three years from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), she was poised to study how to prevent cancer from spreading to the bones of patients with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.

“The first line of treatment for this type of cancer is endocrine therapy; but soon after treatment, the cancer becomes resistant to treatment,” she said. “So, we are trying to determine what makes the cells stop responding. We have a clue, and we are testing our hypothesis to develop a better treatment plan for these patients.”

Du had recently begun the research when she received a stop-work order from the DoD in April.

Alzheimer’s Protective Mutation Works by Taming Inflammation in the Brain

Immunofluorescent image of mouse hippocampus stained for tau

A rare gene mutation that delays Alzheimer’s disease does so by damping inflammatory signaling in brain-resident immune cells, according to a preclinical study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine. The finding adds to growing evidence that brain inflammation is a major driver of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s—and that it may be a key therapeutic target for these disorders.

In the study, published June 23 in Immunity, the researchers examined the effects of the mutation APOE3-R136S—known as the “Christchurch mutation”—which was recently found to delay hereditary early-onset Alzheimer’s. The Weill Cornell Medicine scientists showed that the mutation inhibits the cGAS-STING pathway, an innate immune signaling cascade that is abnormally activated in Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. The researchers found that pharmacologically blocking the cGAS-STING pathway with a drug-like inhibitor replicated key protective effects of the mutation in a preclinical model.

Study Finds Addictive Screen Use, Not Total Screen Time, Linked to Youth Suicide Risk

teen phone addiction

New research shows that youth who become increasingly addicted to social media, mobile phones or video games are at greater risk of suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts and emotional or behavioral issues. The study, published June 18 in JAMA, was led by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine, Columbia University and University of California, Berkeley.

Unlike previous studies that focused on total screen time at one point in a child’s life, this study looked at how young people’s patterns of compulsive or “addictive” use changed over time. These patterns included feeling unable to stop using a device, experiencing distress when not using it or using it to escape from problems. In contrast, simply spending more time on screens at 10 years old wasn’t associated with worse suicide-related and mental health outcomes.

Dr. Yunyu Xiao

Dr. Yunyu Xiao

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