New Technology Advances Breast Cancer Research at St. Joes
A generous donation of $57,000 has been made to help complete the funding of a new and innovative piece of equipment, an MRI-Guided Breast Biopsy and MR Imaging Coil System, built specifically for the MRI scanners located within the Imaging Research Centre and Diagnostic Imaging at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton.
The gift is from the CURE Foundation, a national organization that provides funding for basic science and clinical research for breast cancer. Its mission is to work in tandem with women and men, health professionals, other foundations and Canadian teaching hospitals to improve breast cancer outcomes for those affected.
“The Foundation wishes to congratulate the hospital staff on the wonderful work being done for the patients of St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton,” says CURE Foundation Director JoAnne LaPointe Braun. “The CURE Foundation is very pleased to have been able to assist St. Joseph’s in the important contribution it is making to the Hamilton community.”
MRI technology can detect problems or issues that mammograms and ultrasound sometimes cannot. The new equipment, installed in May 2007, provides exceptional high-resolution images of the breast with extensive coverage of the breast wall. The MRI-Guided System allows for a detailed diagnostic analysis, followed immediately by a biopsy to remove a tiny sample of the lesion, while the patient is still on the table. The System saves the patient a trip to the hospital, reduces anxiety and speeds up analysis and diagnosis by providing two procedures - imaging and biopsy - at the same time.
At present, the MRI-Guided Breast Biopsy Coil System is intended for research, not screening purposes, but it allows the team at St. Joseph’s Imaging Research Centre todevelop new MRI approaches to cancer diagnosis using a simultaneous biopsy as confirmation, thereby providing a direct benefit to patients evaluated with the system.
Approximately three to four complex breast cancer cases per week are investigated using MRI-guided techniques. These are patients who need answers as soon as possible - both for treatment purposes as well as their emotional well-being. For example, the machine allows radiologists to better detect tumor recurrence in patients who have already had breast cancer. A patient’s prior experience with breast cancer may have left scar tissue that can make a mammogram or ultrasound inconclusive.
Leading the imaging research in the area of complex breast cancers is Dr. Michael Noseworthy, an imaging scientist specializing in clinical applications of MRI Physics/Engineering. He is a member of the St. Joseph’s Department of Radiology as well as an Associate Professor at McMaster University. “With this new equipment my radiology colleague Dr. Colm Boylan and I are now able to work on developing novel state-of-the-art breast cancer imaging protocols and new tools to assess breast cancer. The use of the concurrent MRI-guided biopsy rapidly gives us the diagnostic confirmation telling us our new methods are going in the right direction in terms of cancer grading and assessment.”
Dr. Noseworthy says the MRI-Guided Breast Biopsy Coil System significantly advances the breast cancer research program at St. Joe’s. “As far as I know, the work we are doing here at St. Joseph’s is the first of its kind in Canada. Assessment of breast cancer with MRI is not new. However, the correlation of high resolution MR imaging, and tumour metabolic mapping, with image-guided biopsies makes our approach unique.”
This system has established the Imaging Research Centre at St. Joseph’s as a national centre of breast cancer research. Sentinelle Medical Inc., the company who developed the equipment, has designated St. Joseph’s as their global “Showcase Site” for breast imaging technology.
Also enthusiastic about the project is Dr. Kevin Smith, President of St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. “This project demonstrates the power of partnership – making the challenging achievable. As a teaching Hospital, St. Joseph’s is committed to cancer and women’s health, and we are grateful to those who are supporting this project and for the privilege of improving care for the growing number of women and men affected by breast cancer.”
The CURE Foundation was founded in 1996 by breast cancer survivor Diane Proulx Guerrera. Diane wanted to ensure there would always be funds available to support ongoing research into the treatments that saved her life, and in turn, may save the lives of others, or at the very least, improve the outcomes for those affected by breast cancer. The charity initiated National Denim Day the following year. On the Tuesday following Mother’s Day in May, businesses and organizations are encouraged to participate by allowing employees to wear denim at work in exchange for a suggested donation of $5.00 to the CURE Foundation. This has become the charity’s main revenue source and signature fundraising event.
Since its inception, CURE has raised over $14 million for breast cancer research, education and equipment. St. Joseph’s Healthcare Foundation expresses our appreciation to CURE for their kind support, and is proud to be participating in National Denim Day this year.
For more information on The CURE Foundation and National Denim Day, please visit www.curefoundation.com.
