SEATTLE — Aug. 28, 2002 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
has cleared for market a new screening test for lupus developed
by researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
The test is considered the first significant diagnostic
breakthrough for systemic lupus erythematosus, or SLE, in more
than four decades. The test is expected to pick up the 20
percent of SLE cases that previously fell through the cracks
because they could not be detected by the most widely used,
standard screening test. Lupus is a chronic disorder in which a
person's immune system attacks the body. SLE is the most severe
and potentially fatal form of the disease, which causes
inflammation of connective tissue throughout the body, from the
joints to the kidneys. Because symptoms range from skin rash and
mild fatigue to organ failure, diagnosis can be difficult. While
the majority of lupus patients produce antibodies to their own
tissue that can be detected with a blood test that's been
available since the early 1960s, abou