News & Publications
When Tumors Collide: Analysis of Mixed-Type Breast Cancer Reveals Complexity
As part of a breast cancer diagnosis, pathologists take cells from a biopsy and check them under a microscope. Most cancerous cells form roundish clumps, known as no special type, or invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). In fewer patients, the abnormal cells are more dispersed, growing as spider-web-like tendrils throughout the breast tissue. These are invasive lobular carcinomas (ILC...
Pitt School of Medicine Places in Top Tier for Research in U.S. News Rankings
The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is ranked in the top tier for research among medical schools in the latest annual rankings from U.S. News & World Report, released July 23.
The rankings are presented in a new format: Schools are grouped into four tiers based on their percentiles among all the rated schools, rather than listed numerically as they were in...
Pitt Is Building a Molecular Brain Map to Understand Alzheimer’s Disease
Less than a decade ago, when Hansruedi Mathys launched an ambitious project to create an annotated library of all the gene readouts stored within 100 individual brain cells, the task felt daunting.
Now, with technological advances, Mathys successfully mapped out such “transcriptomes” from not just 100, but from 1.3 million brain cortex cells from 48 individuals with and...
Pitt’s Team Behind Team USA
Hadjipanayis Elected AANS/CNS Tumor Section Chair
Costas G. Hadjipanayis, L. Dade Lunsford Professor of Neurological Surgery, School of Medicine, and director of the UPMC Center for Image-Guided Neurosurgery, has been elected chair of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) and Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) Section on Tumors by the section's executive committee. The Section on Tumors—the largest...
Electronic Prompt for Surgeons May Reduce Breast Cancer Overtreatment
University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center researchers have developed a novel prompt, or “nudge,” embedded in the electronic health record that could reduce overtreatment of older patients with early-stage breast cancer.
In a paper published July 17 in JAMA Surgery, the team found that the rate of a surgical procedure called sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB)...
Next Steps on Environmental Justice Efforts
Tina Ndoh (left) and Dani Wilson (right)
Energized by the lessons of a three-day environmental justice summit the University of Pittsburgh cosponsored this spring, participants are putting what they learned into practice around Pittsburgh.
The event’s leaders were Tina Ndoh, associate professor of environmental and occupational health, School of Public Health, and Dani...
Self-Management Program Helps Patients With HIV and Chronic Pain
An intensive, 12-week pain self-management program has been shown to reduce pain and improve mood in a large clinical trial of people with both HIV and chronic pain, according to a paper published July 15 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The research, led by Jessica Merlin, professor of medicine and director of the CHallenges in Managing and Preventing Pain (CHAMPP) Clinical...
Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer Linked with Lower Dementia Risk
Hormone modulating therapy (HMT) used for the treatment of breast cancer was associated with a 7% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias later in life, according to a new study published today in JAMA Network Open.
The study, which is one of the largest of its kind, found that although HMT was linked with protection against the development of...
