This is part two of an Article by Bruce Rushton recently published in the Riverfront Times concerning a Missouri Federal District Court case, in which we are participating, concerning the novel issue of who owns tissue and serum samples donated by grateful patients to a particular surgeon for his research .mailto:[email protected]
"He's among the top five names in prostate cancer in the country," Carey says. "We have an outstanding urology department, but we don't have what you would call a national leader in prostate disease on our faculty. Dr. Catalona would have answered that. Particularly on the clinical side, Dr. Catalona's name carried a lot of weight. His cadre of patients from all over the country was a big asset. We thought, also, he could help us with some of the logistics of patient care, because he does it so smoothly and so effectively. I certainly think his reputation is outstanding, so that reputation might spill over into some other areas, some other programs, some other opportunities."
Virginia came so close to landing Catalona that the medical school issued a press release in 2001 announcing that the doctor had been named to lead the school's Mellon Prostate Cancer Research Institute. Washington University also issued a press release stating that the doctor would be "pursuing other opportunities and challenges."
But the deal fell through. In court papers, Catalona alleges that Peck (who stepped down as dean of the Washington University medical school this past June) agreed to let the specimen bank move with Catalona. Only when Eberlein ordered otherwise did the transfer hit a stone wall, the doctor claims.
It wasn't that simple, counters Clayton.
"In an attempt to resolve the dispute without resorting to the courts and in a way that would allow research to continue at both institutions, we and UVA eventually reached a mutually acceptable split of the repository," the Washington University spokesman writes in an e-mailed response to the RFT. "We compromised. However, splitting the repository was unacceptable to Dr. Catalona and the deal fell apart. Now, Dr. Catalona seeks to have it all transferred to his personal authority."
Dividing the tissue bank was impractical, Piche argues. "How do you divide this stuff?" Catalona's lawyer asks. "These things are frozen."
Once the Virginia deal disintegrated, Washington University "seized" the samples and demanded that Catalona surrender donor lists and databases, the doctor claims in court documents. Previously, he had been the collection's curator and gatekeeper.
According to its lawsuit against Catalona, the university established a committee to decide who should have access to the specimens. The aim, says Clayton, was to make the bank open to researchers nationwide, including Catalona. "We're more than willing to receive proposals from Dr. Catalona," Clayton says. "We want to preserve access to the resource. Keeping it available for research is our goal."
That's Catalona's aim, too, according to his attorney, who says the doctor has shared the repository with other researchers and would continue to do so. "He has continually engaged in collaborative ventures with other people in the use of the samples," Piche says. "And I don't think he's ever turned down a viable research project that would be useful in developing the body of knowledge."
While the university contends that three scientists on the repository's gatekeeping committee evaluate proposals and decide who gets samples, Catalona is skeptical. His attorneys say he tried on several occasions to obtain samples by submitting written requests to Andriole, who had succeeded him as chief of urology. Responses, in the form of e-mails or notes, arrived after considerable delay, Piche says.
"If there is a committee, [Dr. Catalona] doesn't know who he's talking to," Piche says. "We actually think [Andriole] is the committee."
Andriole says he knows of no instance in which Catalona was denied access to samples he requested. He also says Catalona never waited very long before his requests were granted. "That's a very subjective thing," Andriole says. "Some people don't like to wait in line for five minutes at the bank."
Catalona's concerns go beyond asking permission and waiting for specimens. "These are samples that he's put together, and if you carve the best samples out and give them to somebody else, that interferes with what he's doing," Piche says.
While Andriole and Clayton say Catalona is welcome to use the tissue bank, as is any other researcher with a valid proposal, Piche says his client's work has been impeded by the dispute. "He, on a regular basis, gets requests to do extensions of his research with somebody else," Piche says. "All those kinds of things have been on hold."
The fight has also affected work at the National Cancer Institute in Maryland. The federal government's main cancer-research division returned 400 samples of frozen serum, a blood component, to Washington University after Catalona called federal researchers in June and told them they had no right to use the material.
Piche sees the return of the samples as evidence that the feds, who haven't officially weighed in on this fight, agree with his client. But Catalona may have more powerful friends than the federal government.
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