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Date: Monday, Sept. 30, 1996 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: PHS Office on Women's Health (202)690-7650
"These technologic innovations assist intelligence officers in finding targets camouflaged behind trees via satellite, said Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala. "Now clinical trials will determine the safety and effectiveness of the same intelligence technologies to assist radiologists with finding small cancers camouflaged behind breast tissue."
Over the last two years, the Office on Women's Health in the U.S. Public Health Service has been exploring how national investments in defense, space and intelligence technologies can be used to improve breast cancer detection techniques. Research results from this initiative indicated there was a strong potential for adapting the high-tech imaging capabilities of the CIA and the Department of Defense, estimated to be some 10 years ahead of medical imaging, to improve the early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer.
Clinical trials are the crucial next step to test how effectively these new imaging procedures will work on women, with the intent of having the new technologies available to consumers as soon as possible.
"If we can image missiles in distant skies, and with the Hubble telescope see the surface of Mars, then surely we should be better able to detect small lumps in women's breasts right in front of us," said Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.A., Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women's Health and Assistant Surgeon General.
Breast cancer is one of the most feared diseases among women. One in eight women will be diagnosed with the deadly disease during her lifetime. It is estimated that in 1996 more than 44,000 women will die from breast cancer.
Currently, mammography is the best method for detecting breast cancer and can decrease death rates by 30 percent. However, it is a 40-year-old technology that misses up to 15-20 percent of cancerous tumors. In addition, three out of four lesions detected by this technology are benign, leading to unnecessary and costly procedures, including biopsies.
"The clinical trials mark a turning point in the progress of transferring imaging technologies from other fields to improve breast cancer detection. The trials mean we can now start applying what we've learned at the research bench to the clinical setting, with the hope of finding breast cancer at an earlier stage when there is the greatest hope for effective treatment and better survival rates," said Dr. Blumenthal.
The clinical trials will include testing in two major areas:
Other institutions and organizations that will participate in conducting this clinical trial include: Massachusetts General Hospital, University of Chicago, Brown University, University of Arkansas, University of California at Los Angeles, University of California at San Francisco, University of Virginia, National Naval Medical Center and David Sarnoff Research Institute.
In charge of the project for the University of Pennsylvania will be Mitchell Schnall, M.D., Ph.D., Chief of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging Section in the Department of Radiology.
The clinical trials are supported by the PHS Office on Women's Health, which provides national leadership in advancing women's health in public policy, research, service delivery and education, and acts as a catalyst for developing new national and regional initiatives to improve women's health.