Dr. David Lyden, the Stavros S. Niarchos Associate Professor in Pediatric Cardiology, associate professor of pediatrics, and associate professor of cell and developmental biology, has been selected by the Champalimaud Foundation to lead the Champalimaud Metastasis Programme at Weill Cornell Medical College. This year, the Foundation launched its Champalimaud Metastasis Center, the first designated comprehensive cancer center dedicated to the study and treatment of metastic disease, and will focus on the research, prevention and treatment of metastasis. To support the Center, the Foundation started the Champalimaud Metastasis Programme. Weill Cornell is one of just three institutions in the U.S. selected to be supported by the Foundation for the next five years through a yearly grant. The other programs are based at Harvard and Princeton. The Champalimaud Foundation is a private organization based in Lisbon that supports individual researchers and research teams working at the cutting edge of biomedical science. It aims to stimulate novel theoretical and practical methodologies by utilizing the experience of both research scientists and medical practitioners. Dr. Lyden's current research includes study of the "pre-metastatic niche" — the permissive microenvironment that forms in particular tissues located far from the primary tumor.
Dr. Ira Jacobson, the Vincent Astor Distinguished Professor of Medicine, and Dr. Andrew Talal, associate professor of medicine, will be presenting at a conference held Nov. 13 at Weill Cornell Medical College on treatment of hepatitis C virus in patients on opiate agonist therapy (methadone and buprenorphine). HCV seroprevalence in former drug users approaches 80 percent. Despite the high prevalence, these individuals have largely been excluded from clinical trials of HCV and, until relatively recently, there have been prohibitions against treating HCV in this population largely due to the concern of adherence to the difficult treatment. The most recent guidelines published by the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (April 2009) have taken a more liberal approach and have indicated that drug users can be considered for treatment of HCV if they are in treatment for addiction. In order to draft a consensus statement on the issue, this international conference will bring together experts from hepatology, addiction medicine, infectious diseases, and psychiatry. The conference will discuss the challenges of HCV treatment in this population, review models that have successfully treated HCV in this population, and make recommendations for integration of HCV services into venues that offer drug rehabilitation.
November 2, 2009
