Pediatric Neurosurgery in the News

In two surgeries a few weeks apart, the new robot showed what it can do for gene therapy and epilepsy surgery.

The annual list names the top primary doctors and specialists in the New York metropolitan area.

These elite physicians are selected by their peers each year as being the best in their field

Today, the peer-reviewed journal Lancet Oncology published the highly anticipated results of Dr. Mark Souweidane’s first-ever dose escalation study using convection-enhanced delivery (CED) in patients with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). The milestone Phase I clinical trial, which investigated the safety of using CED to bypass the blood-brain barrier and administer a drug directly to a brain stem tumor site, resulted in no serious adverse effects and no dose-limiting toxicity; researchers conclude that the technique is safe to use in children.

The annual list of “Best Doctors in New York,” published this week by New York magazine, includes eight of our faculty members

We welcome Maricruz Rivera and Gary Kocharian, who will be joining our program in June.

In his new role, Dr. Greenfield will oversee and manage all of the department's diverse educational programs

The committee is charged with reviewing and prioritizing Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical trial concepts, in order to promote the best clinical and translational research for patients with brain cancer.

A case study that suggests CED remains a viable treatment option for lesions with cysts

There are more findings to report from his landmark clinical trial for DIPG

The four-plus-year-long trial shows that CED is safe to use in children with DIPG

Developing a reliable means of measuring the volume of a DIPG tumor is a significant advance that will greatly aid in the assessment of potential new treatments.

Researchers found how it may be possible to stop the progression of a low-grade, survivable glioma into a high-grade, fatal malignancy.

What started out as a routine sinus infection invaded the St. Louis teenager’s brain, and it required an extensive team and some surgical heroics to save him.

The authors have become leaders in the field, extending availability of this minimally invasive procedure to pediatric patients.

Dr. Mark Souweidane performed a third direct infusion of a cancer-fighting drug into the brain of a young patient — the first time a child has received a third treatment.

The final two participants in the summer 2016 research program have arrived in the Children’s Brain Tumor Project (CBTP) lab. Matthew Bernstein, who lost his brother Zachary to DIPG and who currently serves as the Youth Volunteer Coordinator for his family’s Fly a Kite Foundation, will spend August helping kick-start our efforts to build a database of thalamic glioma samples. These samples, in combination with the data we are assembling through the online Thalamic Glioma Registry, will be invaluable in new, specific research efforts dedicated to these rare brain tumors.

The summer lab team at the Children’s Brain Tumor Project continues to grow.

We are now full members of an elite group dedicated to collaborating on research into pediatric brain tumors

This week’s issue of New York magazine features the annual listing of “Best Doctors in New York,” and the Weill Cornell Medicine Brain and Spine Center is once again proud to have eight members of our team included on the list. This prestigious roster includes Dr. Philip E.

Third-year neurosurgery resident Benjamin Rapoport, MD, PhD, was selected as the Resident of the Month and honored for exemplifying both the hospital motto, “We Put Patients First,” and the NewYork-Presbyterian Values: Respect, Teamwork, Excellence, Empathy, Innovation, and Responsibility.

The Samuel Jeffers Childhood Cancer Foundation has donated $5,000 to the Children’s Brain Tumor Project (CBTP) to fund a dedicated summer fellow for thalamic glioma research. The fellow will focus on assembling a thalamic glioma tissue repository here at Weill Cornell to provide researchers with tumor samples to study.

Dr. Theodore Schwartz and Dr. Mark Souweidane recently presented at the Second Annual International Congress of the Neurosurgery Department of Ain Shams University (AINAS II) in Cairo. The international meeting, which was organized by the university in collaboration with the Egyptian Society of Neurological Surgery (ESNS), brought together experts from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Germany, South Korea, Finland, the United Kingdom, and the United States to bring advanced endoscopic neurosurgical training to local surgeons.

Umberto will be testing a kinase inhibitor that has been shown to be effective against leukemia as a potential treatment agent against DIPG in mice.

Peter Morgenstern, M.D., a fifth-year resident in neurosurgery at Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center, has been awarded the 2015 Kenneth Shulman Award from the Joint Section on Pediatric Neurosurgery of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS). This award is given each year for the best paper presented at the annual meeting of the Joint Section by a resident-in-training. Dr. Morgenstern's winning paper is "Menin: A Novel Therapeutic Target for Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma," conducted under the mentorship of Dr. Viviane Tabar of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

We are proud to have five neurosurgeons named to this year's list

We are proud to have 8 members of our team on this year's list in New York magazine

The $5,000 award will allow Singh to continue the DIPG research initiative he began last year

The grant allows medical student Scott Connors to continue his investigations into recurrent pediatric ependymoma.

Dr. Souweidane, an internationally renowned pediatric neurosurgeon, will evaluate patients for brain and spine conditions

The Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center has announced a new medical student fellowship, starting in July 2015. The fellowship, made possible by a generous grant from the Rudin Foundation, will allow  one medical student per year to join the Children's Brain Tumor Project as a way to explore a research career in pediatric neuro-oncology. Dr. Mark M. Souweidane, Professor and Vice Chairman of the Weill Cornell Department of Neurosurgery and co-director of the Children's Brain Tumor Project, will be the fellowship director for this position.

We are now ranked as the best neurology/neurosurgery practice in New York, the best in the northeast, and the best east of the Mississippi River.

The Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center is proud to count six of our neurosurgeons among the Best Doctors listed in New York magazine’s annual Best Doctors issue. This year’s list includes four of our full-time faculty — Dr. Philip E. Stieg, chairman of the department of neurosurgery and neurosurgeon-in-chief; Dr.

Dr. Mark Souweidane co-authors important research finding about fatal, inoperable brain stem tumor

Dr. Mark Souweidane has received a $50,000 donation from the McKenna Claire Foundation in support of his DIPG research.

The Weill Cornell Pediatric Brain and Spine Center is now enrolling young patients in a new clinical trial testing intra-arterial infusion of chemotherapy drugs in children with certain recurrent brain tumors, including DIPG

Dr. Mark Souweidane, Vice Chairman of the Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center and Director of Pediatric Neurological Surgery, will be honored next Monday night, September 30, with the 2013 Cristian Rivera Foundation Vision of Hope Award. The award will be presented at the fifth annual Cristian Rivera Foundation Celebrity Gala.

On Saturday, July 27, hundreds of runners and walkers hit the trail for the second annual Miles for Hope “Moving Towards a Cure” race/walk, which benefits the Weill Cornell Pediatric Brain and Spine Center’s research into rare and inoperable brain tumors of childhood and adolescents.

The hospital was once again included on U.S. News' prestigious Honor Roll, a designation given to only 18 hospitals nationwide.

The post-graduate year 1 residents (PGY-1’s) arrive this month to embark on an intensive seven-year training program to become neurological surgeons and neuroscience researchers, studying under some of the top brain and spine surgeons and researchers in the world today.

Mark Souweidane, MD, Vice Chairman of the Brain and Spine Center and the director of pediatric neurosurgery, and Zhiping Zhou, PhD, who manages Dr. Souweidane's pediatric neuro-oncology lab, have contributed a chapter to the new book, "Clinical Management and Evolving Novel Therapeutic Strategies for Patients with Brain Tumors."

Danion Jones, a young patient of Dr. Mark Souweidane, is featured in the latest video from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. At age three Danion was near death from a brain tumor, but his mother brought him to Dr. Souweidane at the Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center. Dr. Souweidane recognized that Danion’s grave condition was not due to his tumor but to infection and was able to help the child recover.  With Danion back from the brink, Dr. Souweidane performed a full day of surgery to remove the tumor and restored the boy to his mom. Watch the video below:

This award is given each year for the best paper presented by a resident at the annual meeting of the Joint Section on Pediatric Neurosurgery.

Six neurosurgeons from the Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center have been named to the Castle Connolly list of Top Doctors for the New York metro area.

In the spring 2012 issue of Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr. Jeffrey Greenfield talks about his patient Connor Ventura, and about diagnosing, treating, and seeking new options for Chiari malformation.