Using a radioactive isotope made at Lucas Heights, an Australian company is successfully taking an innovative new treatment to the rest of the world, offering longer survival rates to sufferers of liver cancer.
The successful establishment of SIRTeX Medical Limited shows how Australian companies can compete with the rest of the world in providing innovative cancer treatments, according to Dr Stuart Carr, Director, ANSTO Radiopharmaceuticals and Industrials at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO).
Dr Carr congratulated the company on its results showing strong domestic and international growth for the use of a new treatment for liver cancer called SIRSpheres.
The system involves tiny spheres containing a dose of Yttrium-90, a radioactive isotope made by ANSTO at Lucas Heights. The treatment is now
used in seven countries, has been used in more than 700 patient treatments, and is experiencing strong growth following approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) in March.
"Companies like SIRTeX show how Australian companies can not only deliver improved treatments for serious diseases, but also compete on the world stage with Australian innovation and resources," Dr Carr said. "The success of this company should point the way forward for other enterprises. The resources available for research of this type should also take a quantum leap when the Replacement Research Reactor makes a greater variety of radioisotopes like Yttrium-90 more readily available."
Liver cancer is the biggest cancer-related killer of adults in the world and is generally considered one of the hardest cancers to treat.