Tipsheet of story ideas from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Following is a tipsheet of story ideas from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. To arrange interviews, please contact the individual listed.

Irene Pollin makes transformational gift to Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute's Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center
In an effort to better protect women from heart disease, Irene Pollin, a widely respected public health advocate who founded the nation's first organization dedicated to preventing heart disease in women, has donated $10 million to the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. The new Linda Joy Pollin Women's Heart Health Program will further the women's heart health research and educational work of C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD, director of the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center and the Women's Guild Chair in Women's Health.

Five "sudden symptoms" of stroke: Recognizing these could save a life - even a young life
May is Stroke Awareness Month - Stroke is the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States. Each year an estimated 795,000 people in this country experience a stroke.* That's approximately the equivalent of every man, woman and child living in Anaheim and Long Beach, CA, combined. But did you know that stroke is also the No. 1 cause of adult disability? Even more surprising, stroke is no longer a disease only of the elderly. Nearly 20 percent of strokes occur in people younger than age 55, and over the past decade, the average age at stroke occurrence has dropped from 71 to 69.

Jewish Wisdom and Wellness week taps ancient tradition, modern practices to improve health
Jewish leaders and members of the public explored the connections between Jewish wisdom and wellness during a community-wide "week of learning" devoted to a variety of notable subjects, including the influence of Jewish tradition on end-of-life decisions, yoga as a healing art and the Jewish perspective on organ transplantation. The Jewish Wisdom & Wellness week, April 21-27, was co-hosted by Cedars-Sinai and the Kalsman Institute on Judaism & Health, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
CONTACT: Duke Helfand, 310-248-6608; Email [email protected]

Bioinformatics experts join Cedars-Sinai to develop personalized treatments based on patients' DNA
Prominent medical statistics expert Zhenqiu Liu, PhD, has joined Cedars-Sinai as the director of Bioinformatics in the Department of Medicine's Hematology/Oncology Division. Bioinformatics helps tailor discoveries and treatment plans for patients by uncovering the way individual genes and gene sequences respond to specific therapies. The goal of bioinformatics is to prescribe treatments that are likely to be optimally effective, based on a patient's genetic makeup.

Scientists identify genetic subtypes of endometrial cancer, a step forward toward individualized treatments
A collaborative, multicenter team of researchers has discovered that endometrial cancer is more complex than previously thought with at least four distinct molecular subtypes. This finding represents an important step forward toward individualized treatments and will allow scientists and physicians to more accurately classify tumor subtypes to direct and improve therapeutic responses. The study, published in the May 2 print edition of Nature, gathered data from 373 endometrial carcinoma patients across the U.S. as part of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project.

Source: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center