FIRST U.S. PATIENT IN GENE THERAPY CLINICAL TRIAL

Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck is the first hospital in the United States to participate in a groundbreaking clinical study, STOP-PAD, which may help prevent patients from needing limb amputations by growing tiny blood vessels. Holy Name’s patient, an 81-year-old man with advanced peripheral artery disease (PAD), is the first person in the country to be treated with JVS-100, a gene therapy that activates natural repair processes in the body. PAD is a narrowing of the arteries to the legs, stomach, arms and head due to a build-up of plaque. The disruption or complete stoppage of blood flow causes a number of symptoms and can eventually be life-threatening. Holy Name’s interventional radiologists, led by Dr. John Rundback, medical director of the Interventional Institute, perform minimally invasive procedures that clear vascular paths and help repair circulation. Rundback performed one of these procedures on the patient’s leg before injecting JVS100 near the site of a wound that wasn’t healing. “The use