Connecting Research and Experts with Journalists

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The Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation is pleased to announce the convening of the first major International Symposium dedicated to the current and future use of magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS) "“ a breakthrough therapeutic technology for treating a variety of serious medical conditions including cancer, neurological disorders, and uterine fibroids.

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The Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation (FUSF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to developing new applications for and accelerating the worldwide adoption of magnetic resonance (MR)-guided focused ultrasound surgery, today announced that it has awarded Nathan McDannold, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Co-director of the Focused Ultrasound Lab with a research award to study new applications for this emerging technology.

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Ten-patient feasibility study shows potential for treating brain disorders with transcranial MR-guided focused ultrasound.

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Edward D. Miller, MD, chief executive officer of Johns Hopkins Medicine, a $6.5 billion integrated global health enterprise and one of the nation’s premier health care systems, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation.

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The Focused Ultrasound Foundation has been awarded a $600,000 grant by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research to help fund a pilot study to determine the feasibility, safety and preliminary efficacy of magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound for the treatment of dyskinesia in Parkinson’s disease.

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Researchers in Zurich, Switzerland have successfully used focused ultrasound for the first time to non-invasively ablate part of a recurrent glioma tumor through a patient’s intact skull. The procedure was performed to assess the feasibility and safety of focused ultrasound in treating brain tumors; it was not intended to demonstrate efficacy. The procedure was conducted using InSightec's Exablate Neuro system.

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Presentations at the recent symposium of The International Society for Therapeutic Ultrasound (ISTU) demonstrate an increasing body of data supporting the potential of focused ultrasound to transform the treatment of a wide range of diseases. This early-stage, non-invasive technology could be a cost-effective alternative or adjunct to traditional surgery, radiation therapy, and drug delivery to treat conditions such as brain tumors, movement disorders, prostate cancer, and soft tissue tumors. Currently approved in the U.S. for the treatment of uterine fibroids and painful bone metastases, many healthcare experts consider focused ultrasound a disruptive technology to watch.

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A European collaborative group has begun a translational research project to develop a clinical system that would enable the treatment of a moving internal organ, such as the liver, using focused beams of ultrasound. The TRANS-FUSIMO (Clinical Translation of the Focused Ultrasound in Moving Objects) project builds on an earlier collaboration (FUSIMO) between 11 European countries that created simulation software.

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Abstract submission is now open for the Focused Ultrasound Foundation's Symposium, Current and Future Applications of Focused Ultrasound 2014.” The Foundation welcomes abstracts related to preclinical, translational, or clinical research that involves the use of image-guided focused ultrasound. Topics of interest include treatments for the brain, bone, breast, liver, prostate, uterine fibroids, and other emerging applications.

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Lian Zhang, MD, gastroenterologist with the Clinical Center for Tumor Therapy, Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing University of Medical Sciences, met with Alan Matsumoto, MD, Co-Director of the UVA Focused Ultrasound Center. Focused Ultrasound is a breakthrough technology that uses multiple intersecting beams of ultrasound energy guided by magnetic resonance or ultrasound imaging to treat tissue deep in the body without incisions or radiation.

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – (September 16, 2014) – The Focused Ultrasound Foundation has recruited Mike Cashman as Co-Director of Development. Cashman joins Pamela Minetti to expand the development effort and take the Foundation’s unique venture philanthropy model to new supporters, increase the reach of our message, and create novel partnerships with like-minded organizations. The addition of this new position will further the Foundation’s efforts to accelerate the development of new applications of focused ultrasound and its widespread adoption as a standard of care.

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Tony and Jonna Mendez, former CIA spymasters, talked about Tony’s experience as the mastermind of the ARGO mission and their careers in intelligence technical development. Tony also spoke about his latest mission of managing Parkinson’s disease and supporting focused ultrasound at the 4th International Symposium on the Current and Future Applications of Focused Ultrasound on Tuesday, October 14, 2014. It was here that he spoke publicly for the first time about his Parkinson’s Disease.

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October 27, 2014 – Charlottesville, VA – The 4th International Symposium on Focused Ultrasound featured clinical and research advances on the use of this non-invasive therapeutic technology to treat conditions as diverse as Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor, obsessive compulsive disorder, several cancers, hypertension and uterine fibroids. More than 400 clinicians, scientists, government and industry representatives from around the world gathered from October 12-16 to share the latest translational and clinical research in image-guided focused ultrasound.

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A recently published report in the Journal of Molecular Psychiatry supports the potential of focused ultrasound to treat certain patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

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A pioneering clinical trial is testing whether focusing high-frequency sound waves onto the surface of bone where cancer has spread can burn away the source of pain.

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A pre-clinical study published this week in Science Translational Medicine suggests that focused ultrasound may hold a key to providing a non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical approach to treating Alzheimer’s disease.

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The Focused Ultrasound Foundation, dedicated to improving lives by advancing a transformative non-invasive treatment technology, has received a one-year $1 million unrestricted challenge grant from an anonymous donor. The grant will match dollar-for-dollar the first $1 million given to support the Foundation’s programs in 2015.

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The Ontario Health Technology Advisory Committee (OHTAC) has recommended Magnetic Resonance-Guided High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound (MRgHIFU or MRgFUS) as a possible “cost-effective strategy” and a “safe and effective, noninvasive, uterine-preserving” option for women seeking treatment for uterine fibroids.

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A Clinical Practice Review, published in the April 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine by Mayo Clinic Ob/Gyn Elizabeth Stewart, MD, recommends focused ultrasound as an important uterine-conserving treatment that should be an option for women with symptomatic uterine fibroids.

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Focused ultrasound has been recognized by Partners HealthCare as one of the “Disruptive Dozen” emerging technologies with the potential to revolutionize neurological and psychiatric care over the next decade.