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For Immediate Release
May 9, 2006
Mercy Joins International Research Trial for
Breast Cancer Blood Test
Oklahoma City—Mercy Women’s Center is the
first site in the U.S. to participate in an international clinical trial
to determine if a simple blood test is viable as a future screening tool
for breast cancer detection.
Mercy joins five sites in Norway and Sweden to help
determine how effective Norway’s DiaGenic gene expression technology is
in providing a unique fingerprint for breast cancer at the earliest
possible stage and with very high accuracy. Dr. Anders Lonneborg,
managing director and research director of DiaGenic, recently made a
site visit to Mercy Women’s Center in Oklahoma City in preparation to
launch the study.
“We currently depend primarily on mammography as a
screening tool to detect breast cancer but we need better methods in
order to diagnose cancer earlier and more accurately,” said Alan
Hollingsworth, M.D., medical director of both Mercy Women’s Center and
Mercy’s Cancer Program. “A blood test could decipher a cryptic message
of proteins found circulating in a person’s blood. With it, we might be
able to detect those breast cancers missed by mammography.”
DiaGenic is one of only a few companies worldwide
that has published their promising breast cancer work in a peer-reviewed
journal. Some 500 women will participate in the study, including an
estimated 100 Oklahomans. Women who undergo breast biopsies at Mercy
Women’s Center and meet the trial’s requirements will be able to donate
a blood sample to the study. Blood samples taken from Oklahoma women
will be processed initially in Oklahoma City, then sent to DiaGenic labs
in Oslo, Norway, where they will be analyzed.
“Because sophisticated imaging, especially breast
MRI, is very sensitive, but too expensive for screening the general
population, I’m hopeful that DiaGenic or one of the other bio-tech
companies we are collaborating with will provide us with a low-cost
blood test that will make it possible for women of all ages and risk
levels to be screened for breast cancer,” said Dr. Hollingsworth. “And
as medical director of Mercy’s overall cancer program, my primary
research agenda is to assist in finding blood tests for the other common
types of cancer.”
Mercy has accumulated the largest blood sample
reservoir anywhere in which specimens are tied to a database that
includes breast MRI outcomes, with over 4,000 specimens available for
researchers.
Dr. Hollingsworth, one of the first physicians in
the country to establish a formal risk assessment program for breast
cancer, recently spoke to the general assembly at the 30th Anniversary
Symposium of the American Society of Breast Disease in Las Vegas,
Nevada. His topic was “MRI Screening in Patients at High Risk for Breast
Cancer” where he introduced the concept of a screening blood test as the
answer to proper patient selection. Other speakers included noted breast
pathologist Dr. David Page of Vanderbilt, medical oncologist Dr. Gabriel
Hortobagyi of M.D. Anderson and Lazlo Tabar of Falun Hospital in Sweden,
considered by many to be the father of mammographic screening.
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