Press Conference: Thursday Oct 22, 4 p.m., Central Time
Chicago Hilton & Towers, Marquette Room
Chicago, Il, October 23, 1998 ... Clinical trials using a non-invasive method
for breast tumor diagnosis will commence in November, pending Board approval, at
the Illinois Masonic Medical Center, an affiliate of the Rush System of Health,
and the University of Illinois/Chicago.
These clinical trials will use the 3TP magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method to distinguish between benign and malignant tumors developed by Prof. Hadassa Degani of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel (Nature Medicine, July 3, 1997 ).
The 3TP method consists of injecting a contrast-enhancing dye-like material into the patient's bloodstream and using MRI to monitor the way in which this material is taken up and cleared out my the tumor tissue.
Clinical trials over the next two years at these two hospitals will involve 200 patients with breast tumors. All patients will undergo MRI examinations using Prof. Degani's protocol. Prof. Degani's team, including Dr. Edna Furman-Haran, will analyze the MRI data to provide a tumor diagnosis, which will then be compared with the biopsy-proven diagnosis.
The funding for the clinical trials in the two Chicago hospitals was provided by the Washington Square Health Foundation, Inc.
"The purpose of these clinical trials is to provide a thorough assessment of the 3TP method, which has already produced promising results," Prof. Degani said. "If these trials are successful, this MRI approach may become a valuable clinical tool for non-invasive cancer diagnosis." "While most of our work with patients has so far been done with breast cancer, in the future this method may be applied to diagnose other cancers as well," Prof. Degani added.
"Washington Squares' grant to the Weizmann Institute for clinical trials in
Chicago of Professor Degani's methodology of utilizing an MRI
'"/>
Contact: Julie Osler
JOSLER@CompuServe.com
212-779-2500
American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science
23-Oct-1998