Patients and research participants continue to ask Dr. Catalona for updates about the status of the litigation over custody and control of the research samples he collected at Washington University.

Previous updates are contained in prior issues of QUEST (Spring 2005, Winter 2004, Spring 2004, Fall 2004 and Fall 2003) and can be accessed on www.drcatalona.com.

A formal hearing was held in Federal Court on April 11, 12 and 13. 2005, and post-trial briefs and follow-up briefs have been filed by all parties: Washington University, Dr. Catalona, and patients and research participants.

The position of Dr. Catalona and the patients and research participants is that such patients and research participants have ownership rights to their body parts and tissue samples.

The patients and research participants in this case provided their tissues to Dr. Catalona for use in research on prostate cancer. The samples also may directly benefit the patients and their families.

Consistent with their ownership rights to their tissues, they want to have the tissues they provided to Dr. Catalona while he was at WU transferred to Dr. Catalona at Northwestern University for the purposes they originally authorized.

Washington University asserts that it owns the tissues in question and has the sole discretion to either destroy the tissues or anonymize them (strip their samples of the identifiers so they could never be linked to the patient who provided the samples or to his family ) and use them for any purpose that it wishes.

The case is currently before the Court for evaluation and decision.

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