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Dr. Alan Hollingsworth, research director of
Mercy Women’s Center, finds himself wedged in a conversation with Nobel laureate James Watson, PhD,
co-discoverer of the structure of DNA (left) and Mark Skolnick, PhD (right), the scientist
who led the team that won the race to identify and sequence the BRCA-1 gene on chromosome 17.
Based on this discovery, Dr. Skolnick went on to launch Myriad Genetics, the premier company
for genetic testing in the world.
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Clinical Trials:
Clinical trials are available for patients at the Women’s Center, especially those diagnosed with breast cancer. Determining which trials are open at any point in time can be a challenge for the patient, so Mercy Women’s Center and Mercy Cancer Resource Center offer Nurse Navigators to assist you in learning more about the studies in which you might want to participate.
If there are no open trials through Mercy that fit your particular situation, then visit our LINKS page where you will find the best web sites to learn about the multiple options available in the United States.
Mercy-specific Research:
SCREENING BLOOD TEST TO DETECT BREAST CANCER: Patients undergoing biopsies
and/or breast MRI at Mercy Women’s Center will be invited to participate in clinical trials to
facilitate research by scientists working on a blood test to detect early breast cancer. Such a
test would revolutionize screening and diagnosis of breast cancer, yet very little attention
has been given to this goal in the past due to excessive reliance on mammography. Now that the
‘miss rate’ of mammography has been established, we are in desperate need of a ‘pre-screening’
blood test that tells us who should undergo these additional studies.
Blood tests used to detect cancer recurrence (commonly called ‘tumor markers’) are
not sensitive enough to detect early cancer. Blood tests used in genetic testing
are one-time studies that determine a ‘pre-disposition’ to breast cancer, but do not
detect the disease itself. Currently, there is NO reliable test on the market to
detect early breast cancer through blood testing.
With the foresight to realize that research for a screening blood test will be more accurate
when compared to breast MRI rather than mammography, Dr. Hollingsworth has now accumulated
thousands of specimens, representing the largest such research reservoir in the country where
serum samples are tied to MRI results. Thus, multiple biotech companies working on this agenda,
as well as the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, have collaborated with Dr. Hollingsworth.
In the immediate future, such a test would be performed annually along with mammograms, guiding the
radiologist to perform further study with special X-ray views or ultrasound, and to biopsy any
abnormality. If these studies prove normal, then a positive blood test would indicate to
the radiologist that a breast MRI is the next step. With an excellent blood test, confidence
over time would eventually allow such a test to be the SOLE method of screening, reserving
all imaging studies for women in whom the blood test is positive.
For more information, contact study co-ordinator, Sharon Nall, RN, MS, CNS, OCN at 405-936-5456.
BREAST MRI OUTCOMES: All patients undergoing breast MRI at Mercy
Women’s Center will have information entered into an exhaustive database, from which Drs. Hollingsworth
and Stough will be analyzing and publishing outcomes in the medical literature on: pre-operative
staging, diagnostic problems, high risk screening, and breast implant problems. While Mercy Health
Center launched breast MRI into routine clinical use in the state of Oklahoma in January 2002, the
adoption of this modality nationwide is going to be gradual as critics and skeptics focus on false-
positives and cost (just as these same groups criticize mammography), ignoring the extreme Sensitivity
for the detection of breast cancer (unparalleled by any other imaging modality, including
PET mammography).
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