Advances in Care

On this episode of Advances in Care, host Erin Welsh is joined by Dr. Scott Tagawa, medical oncologist at NewYork-Presbyterian and director of the Genitourinary Oncology Program at Weill Cornell Medicine, to talk about the latest developments in prostate cancer care. 

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men after skin cancer, with 5-10% of patients presenting with metastasis at the time of diagnosis. Advancing treatment options for men with metastatic disease remains a critical priority in oncology. To address this challenge, Dr. Tagawa recently led a promising Phase III randomized trial– called PSMAddition– to assess radioligand therapy, a subset of targeted radionuclide therapy, or TRT. This new therapeutic agent, lutetium PSMA-617, is being tested in men with hormone-sensitive metastatic prostate cancer. Radioligand therapy works by seeking prostate-specific membrane antigens (PSMAs) to deliver radiation to prostate cells throughout the body while minimizing surrounding damage that other therapies can sometimes cause. The results from the PSMAddition trial were significant. The addition of TRT in addition to standard hormone treatment slowed cancer progression by 28%, yielded notable declines in PSA levels, and proved benefits across patient subgroups. The PSMAddition trial is the first to analyze the use of this treatment regimen earlier in care and could potentially redefine the standard of care for patients with metastatic prostate cancer. 

While metastatic prostate cancer remains incurable, combination strategies incorporating PSMA-targeted therapy represent a promising pathway for expanding the quality and quantity of life for patients, and may prove beneficial as a first-line treatment. 

This breakthrough trial builds on 25 years of innovation in prostate cancer research at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine, where foundational discoveries helped advance the development of PSA and PSMA-targeting agents that are now transforming cancer care.

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Scott T. Tagawa, MD, MS, FACP, FASCO, is a Professor of Medicine and Urology at Weill Cornell Medicine, and an Attending Physician at NewYork-Presbyterian – Weill Cornell Medical Center. His research covers clinical and translational investigations in genitourinary tumors and thrombosis (blood clotting) in people with cancer. As the Medical Director of the Genitourinary Oncology Research Program, Dr. Tagawa leads clinical trials in the areas of prostate, kidney, and bladder cancer as well as the prevention and treatment of thrombosis with cancer. He specializes in drug development and theranostics in prostate cancer. Dr. Tagawa also serves as leader of the GU Disease Management Team and co-leader of the Experimental Therapeutics Program of the Meyer Cancer Center. He is the WCM principal investigator for the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology (formerly CALGB), serving on the Board of Directors and as a funded member of the Genitourinary Committee.

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On this episode of Advances in Care, host Erin Welsh sits down with Dr. Thomas Bottiglieri, chief of the primary care sports medicine division at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia, to discuss the evolving landscape of concussion care– from prevalence to emerging diagnostic breakthroughs. 
With over 2 million estimated concussions occurring annually in the United States, and many of them affecting young athletes, Dr. Bottiglieri and his colleagues have sought to develop a more accurate and accessible way to objectively diagnose concussion. While a single injury may not cause long term issues, research shows that repeated head trauma– and lack of proper care– can lead to premature neurodegeneration. 
During their research to improve diagnostic measures, Dr. Bottiglieri and his team discovered a biomarker associated with severe concussions: a subtle tremor of the head and neck that becomes amplified when a concussed patient tries to visually focus on a target. 
This discovery led to the development of ProScope, an innovative eyetracking software tool that measures head and neck stability and can detect the diagnostic biomarker with over 80% sensitivity. With the advent of these tools, clinicians can now, for the first time, objectively measure concussion. A former competitive athlete himself, Dr. Bottiglieri hopes that the ProScope tool can become commercially available to improve access to cost-effective diagnosis, ensuring that athletes– or anyone with a head injury– can recover safely and return to the activities they love. 
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Thomas S. Bottiglieri, D.O. is a sports medicine physician specializing in the management of orthopedic injuries and disorders impacting athletes at all skill levels from adolescents to seniors. In addition to treating the full spectrum of muscle, bone, tendon, and joint injuries, Dr. Bottiglieri is a nationally recognized expert in the field of concussion care. His practice stresses shared decision-making with patients and their families and uses the latest medical technology, evidence-based sports medicine, and a compassionate, patient-centered approach.
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On the final episode of 2025, host Erin Welsh is joined by Courtney Allison, host of NewYork-Presbyterian’s health and wellness podcast, Health Matters, to recap the year’s highlights from their dozens of conversations with clinicians, researchers, and health care specialists from Columbia & Weill Cornell Medicine. They highlight key takeaways, revisit groundbreaking treatments that were pioneered across the institution, and discuss several research updates that are shaping the future of medicine for both physicians and patients.  
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For any patient diagnosed with depression for the first time, the recommended course of treatment is the same: a medication like a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), an evidence based psychotherapy, or both. But there is a large group of people for whom these treatments simply won't work. That’s where Dr. Conor Liston and his team focus. In this episode from the Advances in Care archives, Dr. Liston speaks with former host Catherine Price about his work mapping the brain is helping doctors better understand where depression is impacting certain brain structures and what that means for the symptoms patients present. Dr. Liston’s work is focused on identifying how these symptoms impact patients' brains and using those findings to identify the best treatment approach.
Since this episode aired, Dr. Liston and his colleagues have continued to build on their research regarding a specific region of the brain called the “salience network.” They found that the salience network was considerably larger in people with clinical depression than in those without, and that people with larger salience networks in childhood were more likely to develop depression later in life. Their research points to an enlarged salience network as the first objective biomarker for diagnosing depression, which could revolutionize how depression is treated, and allow for intervention even before symptoms develop.

In this episode from the Advances in Care archives, Dr. Pierre Elias sits down with Catherine Price to talk about how utilizing technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning can help diagnose patients even before symptoms develop, and support doctors by freeing them up to focus on providing personalized care to their patients. They discuss navigating bias in both artificial intelligence and clinical care, and how new technology will improve the future of medicine.
Since this episode aired, Dr. Elias and his collaborators expanded their research involving AI and cardiac care, developing tools for detecting mitral regurgitation and heart failure.
Additionally, a team at NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia used AI as a fertility treatment for azoospermia, and NewYork-Presbyterian deepened its commitment to developing applications of AI in medicine through a $2 billion campaign to invest in talent and technology.
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