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Find our current Cardiothoracic events and news stories below.

Less Invasive Early Lung Cancer Study Receives Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Award

Nasser Altorki, MD

Dr. Nasser Altorki in OR

A Weill Cornell Medicine-led research team has been awarded a 2024 Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Award from the Clinical Research Forum in recognition of an influential 2023 New England Journal of Medicine study on early-stage lung cancer resection.

The clinical trial results were published Feb. 9, 2023 by a team led by Dr. Nasser Altorki, chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and co-investigators from Duke University as well as investigators from 83 hospitals across the United States, Canada and Australia. The trial found that a surgery that removes only a portion of one of the five lobes that comprise a lung is as effective as removing an entire lobe for certain early-stage lung cancer patients.

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Up and-coming Bronchoscopic Ablation Therapies for Treatment of Lung Cancer

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Robotic Bronchoscopy: A Major Advance in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Early-Stage Lung Cancer

Dr. Ali and Dr. Shostak


Robotic technology isn’t replacing doctors; 
it’s helping them do what they do more safely and with greater control and precision than anyone could have imagined a few short years ago.

“That’s why robotic bronchoscopy is such a game-changer,” Dr. Shostak continues. “It’s like a GPS system that gives us a virtual map telling us which way to turn next as we ‘drive’ through that maze of subdividing airways. And because the robot-assisted method allows us to travel deep into the lung and identify hard-to-reach, potentially cancerous nodules, we can perform biopsies with greater precision and lower complication rates than was previously possible. 

“Our ability to perform robotic bronchoscopy, biopsy and surgical removal of cancerous nodules in one procedure shortens the treatment time window from 90 to 25 days,” Dr. Ali says. “That’s a 3-fold decrease”—one that translates to earlier diagnosis and treatment and to significantly improved survival rates. 

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WCM's Updates in Interventional Pulmonology Symposium: The Era of Robotics

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Dr. Iosif Gulkarov Named Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens

Dr. Iosif M. Gulkarov

Iosif Gulkarov, M.D.

Dr. Iosif Gulkarov, a leading adult cardiac surgeon, has been appointed chief of cardiothoracic surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Queens, effective Oct. 1. Dr. Gulkarov was also recruited to Weill Cornell Medicine as an associate professor of clinical cardiothoracic surgery.

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Lung Cancer Health Fair November 4th

Lung Health Fair Flyer

Cardiac Surgeons Issue ‘Call to Action’ to Improve CABG Outcomes in Women

One trial that may close the research gap is ROMA-WomenMario Gaudino, MD, PhD (Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY), one of the principal investigators, said that while there are observational data to support multiarterial grafting over a single arterial graft, this is being put to the test in a randomized trial in the 4,000-patient ROMA trial. Moreover, it remains possible the treatment effect may vary by sex. However, with only a minority of female patients (approximately 15%), ROMA, which has completed enrollment, would be unable to detect meaningful differences between men and women.

Given that concern, investigators took advantage of existing site infrastructure and launched ROMA-Women. Speaking in the EACTS session, Gaudino provided an update on the trial’s progress, noting it recently gained support from the Global Cardiovascular Research Funding Forum, an international consortium of funders for investigator-led multinational trials. To date, the trial has enrolled more than 200 out of a planned 1,300 patients—not including the roughly 700 female participants in ROMA who will be rolled into ROMA-Women—since the trial launched 3 months ago.

That pace of enrollment is “better than expected,” said Gaudino. “If we keep this pace, we can make this impossible trial possible.”

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Pulmonologists Diagnose a Rare Respiratory Condition and Save a Patient’s Life

Arlene Packles had a violent cough. It didn’t sound quite human. It was like a seal’s bark or a car engine in trouble. And a round of coughing could last for an entire hour. 

Packles’ illness began in 2020, just when the COVID-19 pandemic began its inexorable sweep across the country. A woman with a severe cough wasn’t unusual back then. The novel coronavirus—SARS-CoV-2—tended to push other respiratory conditions to the margins, at least at first. But there was another reason why it took a while for the 73-year-old from Bergen County, New Jersey, to find her way to a diagnosis

Tracheobronchomalacia (TBM) is under-recognized by the pulmonary community, says Dr. Eugene Shostak, an Assistant Professor of Interventional Pulmonology who co-directs Weill Cornell’s TBM program with Dr. Oliver Chow, an Assistant Attending Cardiothoracic Surgeon and Assistant Professor of Clinical Cardiothoracic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine. 

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Valley Health System Participates in First Cardiac Surgery Clinical Trial for Women

Valley Health System is pleased to participate in the ROMA: WOMEN clinical trial, the first cardiovascular surgery clinical trial in women. Valley recently enrolled its first two patients in the trial. Sponsored by Weill Medical College of Cornell University and The Starr Foundation, the trial is designed to determine which bypass graft type is more effective for women with coronary artery disease (CAD) who are undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedure. Click here to learn more about the article 

PCORI Awards $30 Million for a Comparative Study of Surgical Options for Coronary Artery Disease in Underrepresented Patient Populations

Dr. Mario Gaudino

A multi-institutional team of scientists led by Dr. Mario Gaudino, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Professor in Cardiothoracic Surgery and assistant dean for clinical trials at Weill Cornell Medicine, has been approved for a nearly $30 million funding award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The award will fund the first study among women and Black and Hispanic patients comparing the effectiveness of two revascularization options used to treat coronary artery disease.

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Phone: (212) 746-5166

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