To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: Oncoseed Available In the U.S. For Prostate Cancer URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/135712.htm Doctor's Guide October 5, 1999
PRINCETON, N.J. -- October 5, 1999 -- Nycomed Amersham Imaging, the leader in in-vivo diagnostic imaging and a leading provider of radiotherapy products, today announced that it will immediately begin marketing its world leading I-125 Seeds® product for prostate cancer treatment under the brand name Oncoseed™. The Company has initiated the branding effort to provide physicians with the assurance that they are using the only seeds with published 10-year clinical survival data.
"The Oncoseed name will provide the assurance that physicians are using the world's leading seeds in their procedures, and that extensive clinical data exists to support their selection of our product," said Daniel L. Peters, President of Nycomed Amersham Imaging in the Americas.
Nycomed Amersham Imaging will support the launch of the Oncoseed brand with extensive advertising in radiation and urology journals, a direct mail campaign to customers, and a comprehensive detailing program to the medical community using its dedicated sales team.
In July, Nycomed Amersham led the industry by announcing that Oncoseed, including the RAPID Strand™ delivery system, were traceable to the 1999 National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) standard. The Company is the only supplier of iodine seeds that has changed from the longstanding 1985 NIST standard, by assaying to the 1999 NIST standard.
Prostate seed implant therapy, which is a type of brachytherapy, is a nonsurgical outpatient procedure in which radioactive seeds are implanted into the prostate, where they irradiate the tumor. Within days of the procedure, most patients are back to their everyday activities.
Currently, one in four prostate cancer patients is treated using seed implants. Other choices for the initial treatment of prostate cancer, which patients should discuss with their physician, include radical prostatectomy (a major surgical procedure that entails removal of the prostate) or external beam radiation.
Results of a clinical study presented in June demonstrated the value of using Oncoseed in patients with Gleason score 7, indicative of a more aggressive prostate cancer. The findings, presented by Frank A. Critz, M.D., of the Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia, were from a study that examined the use of Nycomed Amersham Imaging's Oncoseed in combination with external beam radiation in patients with Gleason score 7. (Gleason scores, which range from 2 to 10, are calculated based on a microscopic pathological analysis, and are used to quantify the aggressiveness of the tumor.)
Another study, headed by Haakon Ragde, M.D., of the Pacific Northwest Cancer Foundation in Seattle, and published in the journal Cancer in the fall of 1998, concluded: "Brachytherapy is an effective and valid treatment for patients with clinically organ-confined prostate carcinoma. Observed 10-year follow-up results ... document better biochemical disease-free survival than several ... external beam irradiation series, and appears comparable to disease-free results from several surgical series."
Nycomed Amersham Imaging also markets the proprietary RAPID Strand delivery system for prostate brachytherapy. With this system, which was launched in 1995, Oncoseed is distributed in a rigid, absorbable suture material. RAPID Strand permits precise placement of the seeds, and holds them in position, facilitating the optimal delivery of the therapeutic radiation dose. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1999 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of P\S\L content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of P\S\L. P\S\L shall not be liable for any errors, omissions or delays in this content or any other content on its sites, newsletters or other publications, nor for any decisions or actions taken in reliance on such content. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This news story was printed from *Doctor's Guide to the Internet* located at http://www.docguide.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to News Story Page This site is maintained by webmaster@pslgroup.com Please contact us with any comments, problems or bugs. All contents Copyright (c) 1998 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved.