Theragenics says that it has seen evidence of growing demand for its new palladium-103 cancer treatment device.

The medical treatment device producer issued its third quarter results, detailing revenues worth $24.9 million dollars for the nine month period ending October 3rd, with the palladium-based treatment TheraSeed cited as major growth driver.

Ms M. Christine Jacobs, Theragenics chairman, said its TheraSeed sales and sales by its other distributor increased over the same quarter last year.

She cited research from the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology (ASTRO) convention based on the largest ever clinical study of prostate brachytherapy, which showed patients undergoing treatment had enjoyed a 93 per cent disease specific survival rate at 12 years.

"This was good news for our industry as a whole, and for Theragenics in particular, since the vast majority of the patients in the study were treated using the TheraSeed palladium-103 device (1,129 of the 1,449 patients)," she explained.

"The study clearly shows brachytherapy treatment to have equal or better survival rates than surgery or any other treatment option."

The palladium-103 device TheraSeed is used in the treatment of localized prostate cancer in one-time, minimally invasive procedures.