Since installing an ExAblate 2100 system in May 2010, Alessandro Napoli, M.D., Ph.D. and his colleagues at Sapienza University of Rome have wasted no time in making their mark on the field of MR-guided focused ultrasound.
As Napoli reports, in October, they “performed the very first clinical treatment of pancreatic cancer with MR-guided focused ultrasound and demonstrated that the technique is both safe and feasible.” The treatment was part of a Phase 1 clinical trial assessing focused ultrasound as a therapy for pain palliation for primary pancreatic cancer. An additional 12 patients are expected to be enrolled in the study over an 18-month period.
Napoli and his collaborators – Carlo Catalano, M.D. and Roberto Passariello, M.D. – are also performing uterine fibroid treatments and enrolling patients under a treat and resect protocol for both prostate and breast cancer.
More information about the focused ultrasound treatments and clinical trials at Sapienza University of Rome can be found in the FUS Foundation’s January 2011 newsletter:
http://www.fusfoundation.org/Newsletter/fusf-newsletter-volume-27