Physicians and public health researchers have long sounded the alarm about the high incidence of cardiovascular disease in economically disadvantaged urban neighborhoods compared with more affluent ones. But in recent years, another disturbing disparity has become increasingly evident: that residents of underserved areas are also diagnosed with cancer—and die of the disease—at disproportionate rates.
Dr. Manuel Hidalgo, a leading physician-scientist who specializes in pancreatic cancer and drug development, has been named chief of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology in the Weill Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, effective June 1.
Weill Cornell Medicine, in collaboration with Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian, has been awarded a $900,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to conduct prostate cancer clinical trials.
When Dr. Olorunseun Ogunwobi, an associate professor of biology at Hunter College and adjunct assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medicine needed African-American men to participate in his research on how genetics might play a role in prostate cancer disparities, he reached out to a well-known Bronx community leader to help him establish relationships with potential participants.
