�The Focused Ultrasound
Surgery Foundation is pleased to announce the convening of the number 1 major
International Symposium dedicated to the current and future use of magnetic
resonance guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS) -- a breakthrough
therapeutical technology for treating a variety of serious medical conditions
including cancer, neurologic disorders, and uterine fibroids.
The MRgFUS 2008 International Symposium, to be held on October 6th and
7th in Washington, DC, will feature more than 75 leading clinicians,
scientists, and engineers from over 12 countries who ar contributing to
the rapid advancement of this field. The multidisciplinary program testament
span the latest inquiry, current and future clinical applications, and
practical issues related to adoption including best practices, training,
and reimbursement. The program will be of interest to individuals from
academia, clinical treatment facilities, industry, and funding bodies.
"This is a landmark event in the phylogenesis of focused ultrasound
surgery," said Dr. Neal F. Kassell, professor of neurosurgery at the
University of Virginia and Chairman of the Foundations' board. "Although
there has been important work done around the world in the line of business for a
number of years, it isn't until you see it all come together like this that
you begin to understand the true potential of this technology to meet the
challenges of modern medicine with less invasive and more effective
treatment."
About magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound surgery (MRgFUS)
MRgFUS is a riotous technology that is poised to inspire the
discourse of a wide diverseness of medical disorders by serving as the ultimate
in minimally invasive surgical procedure; an alternative to radiation therapy; the
means for precisely delivering drugs in high concentrations to the point
where they are needed; and, dissolving blood line clots and restoring
circulation.
MRgFUS is already established for the treatment of uterine fibroids and
holds the potential to non-invasively treat breast, prostate, liver, and
other benign and malignant tumors; to commute metastatic malignant neoplastic disease from a
lethal disease to a manageable, chronic disorder; to reverse the disabling
and life threatening neurological deficits from cam stroke; to relieve the
symptoms of Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, and chronic pain; and to accost
the host of former disorders ranging from warmheartedness disease to diabetes.
MRgFUS can be performed on an outpatient basis, does not require
general anaesthesia or incisions, results in minimal irritation and few
complications, and allows speedy recovery.
MRgFUS is the result of the integration of deuce technologies: high
intensity focused ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging. Focused
ultrasound engineering uses multiple intersecting beams of sonography energy
focussed with extreme precision on a mark as small as 1mm in diameter.
This is analogous to focusing rays of sunlight with a magnifying field glass on a
spot and burning a hole in a firearm of newspaper publisher. Where each individual
echography beam passes through the tissue at that place is no effect, merely where
they intersect in the body, the focused energy creates a cumulative effect,
enabling precise ablation of tissue, highly targeted drug pitch, or
liquefaction of stemma clots. Magnetic resonance tomography is victimized to
figure normal build and abnormal structures within the body, to
set the tissue to be targeted, to guide and control the treatment
interactively, and to evaluate the effectiveness of therapy.
About the Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation (FUSF)
The Charlottesville-based Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation was
founded in 2006 as a catalyst to speed the development and world-wide
adoption of MRgFUS, and thereby improve the lives of millions of patients.
The Foundation's mission is to shorten the meter from technology development
to patient treatment, to develop new applications and to accelerate the
worldwide adoption of MRgFUS. The Foundation's activities include: funding
translational and clinical research, providing fellowships for training
physicians and scientists, hosting symposia and workshops, maintaining
online informational resources, and establishing new centers of excellence.
Leading medical experts' perspective on MRgFUS Symposium 2008
"MRgFUS 2008 will highlight both electric current and potential future uses of
MRgFUS and testament provide the most comprehensive and authoritative update of
this highly promising technology. This volition help physicians realize the
potential of MRgFUS in mainstream practice of medicine. This confluence will be a great
opportunity for the unanimous field to work in concert to speed up the pace of
developing and collaboration for MRgFUS."
-- King C. Li, M.D., F.R.C.P(C)., M.B.A., Anderson Foundation
Distinguished Chair in Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Professor of
Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, Chair, Department of Radiology,
The Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX
"MRgFUS 2008 will be extremely helpful to the field. To date,
researchers using and developing MR guidance of focused ultrasound have had
to meet a assorted other meetings, be those in the field of MRI or
therapeutic echography. Having a unified meeting will grant for all the
newest information and development in this combined research domain to be
shared in the most efficient manner. For us, MRgFUS is an exceedingly
important engineering. We ar presently developing new applications for
therapeutic ultrasound that will take advantage of all the benefits that an
MR guided system has over other systems, including those for handling
planning, optimization, and validation of therapy. Our ambitious goals for
these applications would non be technically feasible without an MR-guided
system."
-- Victor Frenkel, Ph.D., Head, Therapeutic Ultrasound Research
Molecular Imaging Lab, Diagnostic Radiology Department, National Institutes
of Health, Bethesda, MD
"MRgFUS has the potential to be an important interventional tool which
has humiliated morbidity and high efficaciousness."
-- David Gianfelice, M.D., Division Head of VIR, University Health
Network, Toronto, Canada
"This sort of focused coming together is how MRI started a generation ago. This
could be as large or bigger. For stroke thrombolysis it could be the most
important encounter in the country. The pieces ar coming unitedly for the
breakthrough techniques of the next decennary. MRgFUS 2008 will be the place
where critical mass is achieved and the solutions start to take real
shape."
-- William C. Culp, M.D., Professor of Radiology & Surgery, Chief of
Interventional Radiology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
"MRgFUS is an extremely important development. As a neuroradiologist, I
get a major interest in stroke. MRgFUS could all revolutionize the
treatment of acute stroke by liquefying the thrombus. The MRgFUS 2008
group meeting is identical important for issues such as reimbursement. The more than users
of MRgFUS we have the sooner we will fetch category I codes for
reimbursement."
-- William G. Bradley, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.R., Professor and
Chairman, Department of Radiology, University of California San Diego
Medical Center
"MRgFUS is already very important in some areas of medicine, and can
become identical important in neurosurgery because of the minimally invasiveness
of this tool. MRgFUS could be used in neurooncology, neurovascular and
functional neurosurgical cases. One of the to the highest degree tive features is the
possibility to eliminate the need of radiation therapy and its unwelcome
side effects. MRgFUS 2008 will be a very helpful meeting, because more
physicians need to be aware of MRgFUS technology."
-- Mario Zuccarello, M.D., Professor; Director, Division of
Neurosurgery, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
"MRgFUS 2008 in Washington, DC, will be a very exciting opportunity for
a multi-disciplinary team of experts to present and discuss the future --
it should be very helpful in increasing awareness and will accelerate the
advancement of the total field. MRgFUS is a major persona of our clinical
research currently and will maturate and suit a major treatment selection for
many of our patients."
-- Clare M. C. Tempany, M.D., Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical
School, Ferenc Jolesz Chair of Radiology Research, Brigham and Women's
Hospital, Boston, MA
"The MRgFUS 2008 meeting will be the first major international
scientific congress addressing the rationale for and feasibility of focal
therapy for prostate gland cancer. It will wreak together experts in tomography and
treatment technology with experts in the diseases. I mean it volition launch
an exciting new era in minimally invading treatment of cancer. MRgFUS
promises to play a major purpose in oncology in the future. [It will be]
extremely worthful for urology and for surgical oncology in general."
-- Peter T. Scardino, M.D., F.A.C.S., Chair, Department of Surgery,
Florence and Theodore Baumritter & Enid Ancell Chair of Urologic Oncology,
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY
The Focused Ultrasound Surgery Foundation
http://www.fusfoundation.org
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