Media Contact: Sandra VanTelephone: 310-423-4767E-mail: [email protected]
CEDARS-SINAI MEDICAL TIP SHEET: April 2001
CARDIOLOGIST NOEL BAIREY MERZ, M.D., BRINGS MULTI-SPECIALTY PERSPECTIVE TO HER NEW ROLE AS DIRECTOR OF WOMEN'S HEALTH PROGRAM AT CEDARS-SINAI
Cardiologist Noel Bairey Merz, M.D., currently director of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Preventive and Rehabilitative Cardiac Center, has been appointed to direct the Women's Health Program and hold the Women's Guild Chair in Women's Health. "Through her guidance, Cedars-Sinai will have a tremendous impact upon the health and well-being of the women in our community, providing cutting-edge benefits in terms of research, clinical care and education," says Shlomo Melmed, M.D., Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Director of the Burns & Allen Research Institute.
TEMODAR CLINICAL TRIAL STUDIES EFFECTIVENESS OF FIRST NEW FDA-APPROVED BRAIN CANCER FIGHTING DRUG IN MORE THAN 20 YEARS
A clinical trial to study the effectiveness of Temodar (temozolomide), the first new brain cancer fighting drug to receive FDA approval in more than 20 years, is underway at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute in Los Angeles. The study will focus on patients with mixed gliomas or oligodendroglial tumors and is expected to last approximately two and one-half years. Although this is presently a single-center clinical trial, other facilities are expected to join the study as it progresses.
VERY LOW DOSES OF A POTENT NEW DRUG REDUCES THE COMPLICATIONS OF BONE METASTASES IN PATIENTS WITH METASTATIC BREAST CANCER AND MULTIPLE MYELOMA
Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center report that very low doses of a potent new drug called zoledronic acid reduces the complications that arise from multiple myeloma and breast cancer that has spread to the bone. The study, published in the April 1st issue of the journal, Cancer, shows that a five-minute infusion of zoledronic acid works as effectively as much higher doses of a similar therapy called pamidronate, which is given over a two-hour time period. Bone metastasis occurs in approximately 50 percent of patients with cancers that have spread to other parts of the body, but is particularly prevalent in multiple myeloma and metastatic cancers of the breast, prostate, lung, kidney and thyroid.
SEEING VARIATIONS IN THEIR OWN BODY TEMPERATURES, STUDENTS ATTENDING 2001 "BRAINWORKS" AT CEDARS-SINAI'S MAXINE DUNITZ NEUROSURGICAL INSTITUTE WILL LEARN ABOUT THERMAL IMAGING
On May 30, 2001, 120 seventh- and eighth-grade students from Los Angeles-area schools will learn how researchers at Cedars-Sinai's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute are adapting declassified military technology for medical uses. Scientists at the Institute are using thermal imagers to detect brain tumors and malformed arteries in the brain that can cause strokes.
LOS ANGELES MARATHON RUNNER DEFIES STATISTICS TO SURVIVE HEART ATTACK, OXYGEN DEPRIVATION AND HEAD INJURY WITH NO LONG-TERM DEFICITS
Slightly more than seven weeks after collapsing from a heart attack while running the Los Angeles Marathon, 49-year-old John Davidson has made what doctors call a miraculous recovery. Despite requiring CPR from fellow runners at the scene for approximately 15-17 minutes, then being in a coma for six days, Davidson has no discernible cardiac damage on EKG, on echocardiogram, nor on examination. And there's no neurologic damage.
HEART TRANSPLANT RECIPIENT FINDS OPPORTUNITIES TO SHARE INSIGHTS AND HOPE WHEN HE GOES TO WORK IN CEDARS-SINAI'S LIVER AND KIDNEY TRANSPLANT PROGRAM
This June, Glenn Matsuki, Silver Lake, CA, will celebrate the sixth anniversary of his heart transplant. What makes him truly unique is that he also works in the organ transplant arena -- serving for the past year as management assistant for Steven D. Colquhoun, M.D., transplant surgeon and Program Director for the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Having first-hand experience as a transplant recipient, gives him unique insights into the needs and concerns of patients facing a liver or kidney transplant. He is available for interviews.
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