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News Archive from October 2010

News Releases

October 28, 2010

Drs. BarAd and Shi Join Thomas Jefferson University's Department of Radiation Oncology

Two radiation oncologists, Voichita BarAd, M.D., and Wenyin Shi, M.D., Ph.D., both of whom are proven clinicians as well as medical researchers dedicated to advancing patient care, have been recruited to Thomas Jefferson University.

October 27, 2010

Jefferson Urologist Awarded Lifetime Achievement Award from Endourological Society

Demetrius H. Bagley, M.D., the Nathan Lewis Hatfield Professor of Urology in the Department of Urology at Jefferson Medical College (JMC) of Thomas Jefferson University was recently honored as the 2010 recipient of the Karl Storz Lifetime Achievement Award in Endourology at the World Congress of Endourology. He is also a full Professor of Radiology.

October 19, 2010

Jefferson Researchers Identify Mechanism Behind Fibrotic Disorder

Scientists from the Jefferson Institute of Molecular Medicine of Thomas Jefferson University are now several steps closer to understanding the mechanism behind a novel systemic fibrotic disorder that affects some patients with renal insufficiency who receive imaging contrast agents for MRI. Two of their studies on the disorder appear together in the November issue of the Annals of Rheumatic Diseases.

October 18, 2010

Jefferson Sleep Apnea Study Can Help Identify Patients at Risk for Surgical Complications

A research team from the Jefferson Sleep Disorders Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital has utilized a simple, eight-item pre-operative questionnaire about obstructive sleep apnea syndrome that could help identify patients at risk for complications following surgery, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

October 17, 2010

Promise of Outpatient Brain Gene Therapy is One Step Closer, Researchers Say

In the October 17 issue of Nature Methods, researchers at Thomas Jefferson University describe how they can transfer genes into brain neurons intravenously, using a viral gene delivery vehicle (vector) that causes no side effects.

October 14, 2010

Mani S. Kavuru, M.D., Named Director, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Jefferson

Mani S. Kavuru, M.D., has been named the director of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and has also been named a professor of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and joins the faculty after four years as Service Chief, Pulmonary and Critical Care at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville, North Carolina.

October 14, 2010

Robot to Have First Clinical Trial Test in Prostate Cancer Patients

In the first-of-a-kind clinical trial, a robot will be used to place therapeutic radioactive seeds in prostate cancer patients. The National Cancer Institute-supported study, which will enroll 14 patients, has just opened at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

October 11, 2010

Jefferson Awarded Multi-Million Dollar NIH Grant for External Imaging of Cancer Gene Activity

Thomas Jefferson University has been awarded a four-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a study of cancer gene activation in lung cancer. The research team proposes to use imaging techniques to highlight a gene involved in solid tumors, thus helping to direct cancer therapy.

October 11, 2010

Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Creates Multidisciplinary Senior Adult Oncology Center

The odds of developing some type of cancer increase with age; sixty percent of cancer in the United States occurs in persons aged 65 and older. At the same time, senior patients may have acute or chronic diseases that make treating their cancer challenging. That's why the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson has established a new, multidisciplinary Senior Adult Oncology Center to provide a comprehensive consultation for senior patients in order to meet those special challenges.

October 06, 2010

Drug that Helps Adults Addicted to Opioid Drugs Also Relieves Withdrawal Symptoms in Newborns

Thousands of infants each year have exposure to opioids before they are born. Over half of these infants are born with withdrawal symptoms severe enough to require opioid replacement treatment in the nursery. Such treatment is associated with long hospital stays, which interferes with maternal/infant bonding. Now, a team of researchers at Thomas Jefferson University has tested a semi-synthetic opioid they say has the potential to improve the treatment of these newborns, which could save hundreds of millions in healthcare costs annually if future tests continue to show benefit.

October 04, 2010

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Among First in U.S. to Treat Mild Heart Failure with Implantable Cardiac Device

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital is one of the first hospitals in the United States to treat high-risk asymptomatic or mild heart failure patients with cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators (CRT-Ds), which have been clinically proven to reduce death and heart failure events, such as hospitalization. Seventy percent of all heart failure patients in the U.S. are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic. As one of 110 trial sites worldwide, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, participated in a landmark clinical trial called MADIT-CRT, that led to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's September approval for expanded use of CRT-Ds for early-phase heart failure.

October 01, 2010

Jefferson Starts Live Donor Liver Program

The Division of Transplantation in the Department of Surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (TJUH) has started a live donor liver transplant program. Live donor liver transplantation (LDLT) is a procedure in which a living person donates a portion of his or her liver to another person. Combined, the two operations typically take about 12 hours. Since the program began in summer 2010, three patients and their donors have successfully undergone the procedure.

October 01, 2010

The Jefferson Department of Surgery Welcomes Five New Surgeons

The Department of Surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (TJUH) and Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University recently welcomed five new surgeons to its ranks.

October 01, 2010

Jefferson Study Suggests Computer-Aided Detection Is Increasingly Being Used in Screening and Diagnostic Mammography

According to a study from Thomas Jefferson University, the use of computer-aided detection (CAD) is increasing, in both screening and diagnostic mammography. The findings will be published in the October issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology. CAD software systems highlight and alert the radiologist of abnormal areas of density, mass or calcification on a digitized mammographic image (of the breast) that may indicate the presence of cancer.

Featured in the Media

Featured October 29, 2010

Jefferson Oncologist to Be Featured on Discovery Channel October 30 and November 6

Edith Mitchell, MD, of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson, will discuss triple negative breast cancer -- an aggressive type of cancer that affects some groups, such as African Americans, more than others. Learn about risk factors, treatment and promising research being done on targeted therapy for the disease.