Primary hyperparathyroidism is a significant medical and public health problem in the world and affects approximately 100,000 new patients in the United States alone. If left untreated this can lead to renal stones, osteoporosis, fatigue, and depression. The best treatment for primary hyperparathyroidism is surgical parathyroidectomy. However surgical parathyroidectomy can be difficult due to the variant location of the parathyroid glands. Up to 5% of patients leave the operating room without surgical cure. Primary hyperparathyroidism is an ideal disease to investigate intraoperative fluorescent imaging. This would allow surgeons to identify the parathyroid glands and resect the suspicious parathyroid glands. Folate receptor (FR) has been found to be over-expressed in parathyroid tissue and not thyroid issues. An ideal surgical treatment would combine FR-specific fluorescent tracers with intraoperative imaging. It is important to note that FR is expressed only in the proximal tubules of the kidneys, activated macrophages, and in the choroidal plexus. Thus, the false positive detection rate is expected to be extremely low. A group well known to us in the Netherlands has completed a pilot study utilizing a folate-FITC conjugate in 12 patients with ovarian cancer. Another group of investigators in Mayo have subsequently performed this study on 20 more patients without any serious adverse events (personal communication). They report excellent sensitivity and specificity with this technique with only grade 1 side effects (allergic reaction). All side effects reversed when the injection was halted. Patients with a history of allergic reactions to insect bites should not participate (fluorescein is derived from the firefly insect, folate is an essential vitamin). A fluorescent contrast agent (folate-FITC or EC17) will be used to determine if it will localize to the primary tumor nodule(s) or mass(es) of patients undergoing parathyroid surgery.

The overall prevalence of Ovarian Cancer in the United States according to the US SEER Registry is 182,710 women. Ovarian cancer also has the highest mortality rate of the gynecological cancers. The overall five-year survival rate is 45% and for Stages III and IV it is only 20-25%. The majority of these are aged 50 years or older, but a few girls less than 10 years of age have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. This risk increases with age and decreases with numbers of pregnancies. The prognosis for many carcinomas is dependent on the extent of surgical resection. At present, the ability to perform a complete resection with negative margins is limited by the investigator's ability to palpate and visualize the tumor and its borders. In many cases, a more radical resection than necessary is performed in order to provide assurance that negative margins are achieved. This approach may also increase complication rates, as well as short- and long-term morbidity. It is desirable to improve visualization of primary tumors and occult metastases in real time, during surgery. The use of fluorescent probes that recognize cancer-specific antigens, in conjunction with a clinical imaging system, is under investigation. Ovarian cancer is a prototypic disease for this type of clinical imaging system called intra-operative imaging. Except in Stage IV, the tumors are confined to the pelvis or abdomen and typically involve extensions or implants onto pelvic or abdominal organs or membranes. Tumor debulking surgery is common early in the disease process as many of the tumors can be identified by appearance or feel in the skilled surgeon's hands. The major problems are that tumors can be diffuse and numerous, of various sizes, and often not readily visible in the surgical field. Over 90-95% of serous ovarian cancers express folate receptor (FR)-alpha, making this receptor an ideal target for marking most ovarian cancers. Folate is the prototypic agonist at the FR-alpha with potential uses for imaging and targeted therapeutic strategies.Chemotherapy does not affect FR-alpha expression in ovarian cancer specimens examined by immunohistochemistry, so prior treatment is unlikely to affect utility of FR-alpha agonists as imaging or therapeutic agents.

500 patients will be prospectively recruited to undergo a fast breast MRI examination. The women will be recruited for the study will meet the following criteria: 1. status post primary breast cancer treated with breast conservation therapy 3 years prior to recruitment 2. negative DBT examination six months prior to recruitment 3. all breast densities 4. clinically asymptomatic - no palpable masses, focalthickening, or clinically significant discharge We will identify these patients EPIC database utilizing the date of their last mammogram. The patients will be sent a letter explaining the study and the opportunity to enroll in the study. Interested patients may contact our research coordinators by the phone number provided in the letter. The study recruitment information will also be shared with referring physicians. Physicians may also directly refer patients to the study.