AREA FIRM GETS FDA APPROVAL ON PROSTATE CANCER THERAPY.Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Daily News Staff Writer North Hollywood-based North American North American named after North America. North American blastomycosis see North American blastomycosis. North American cattle tick see boophilusannulatus. Scientific Inc. said Wednesday that it has received approval from the federal Food and Drug Administration to market a line of radioactive pellets used in prostate cancer prostate cancer, cancer originating in the prostate gland. Prostate cancer is the leading malignancy in men in the United States and is second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer death in men. treatment. The pellets, called ``seeds'' in the medical community, are implanted directly into a cancerous prostate or surrounding tissue by needles guided by an ultrasound scan ultrasound scan Noun an examination of an internal bodily structure by the use of ultrasonic waves, esp. for diagnosing abnormality in a fetus in a process called brachytherapy. North American's pellets are made of Iodine-125 and the company expects to start marketing them in about three months. The company already manufactures and markets low-level radioactive products for nuclear medicine, industrial and commercial applications. ``This is the first of our products that is going to have therapeutic applications and hopefully it will be the first of many,'' said L. Michael Cutrer, North American's chief executive officer. He estimates the market for the new product at $25 million and growing. ``We should be able to capture 30 percent of it fairly rapidly,'' he predicted. North American has completed its manufacturing facility and expects to market its prostate cancer brachytherapy pellets within three months. The company, which has 14 employees, was founded in 1989. Its major competition for the cancer treatment business comes from Norcross, Ga.-based Theragenics Corp., which manufactures a seed made out of a different isotope, and Amersham International in England. Ron Warren, Theragenics director of investor relations Investor relations The process by which the corporation communicates with its investors. , said that the treatment is less invasive than surgery and is typically done on an outpatient basis. Recovery from treatment is also short. ``Typically patients return to normal activity in two to three days but it varies from individual to individual. For men that are more active the recovery time is even less,'' he said. ``We've had some men hiking in the north Georgia mountains The Georgia Mountains Region or North Georgia mountains is an area that starts in the northeast corner of Georgia, United States, and spreads in a westerly direction. The mountains in this region are in the Blue Ridge mountain chain that ends in Georgia. a day after the procedure.'' Dr. Arie Belldegrun, chief of the urological oncology division at the University of California The University of California has a combined student body of more than 191,000 students, over 1,340,000 living alumni, and a combined systemwide and campus endowment of just over $7.3 billion (8th largest in the United States). , at Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , School of Medicine and a professor of urology urology Medical specialty dealing with the urinary system and male reproductive organs. It traces its origin to medieval lithologists, itinerant healers who specialized in surgical removal of bladder stones. , said that surgery is still ``gold standard'' for prostate cancer treatment. Brachytherapy is used in specific situations and can be combined with other treatments, he said. ``If its a small volume of cancer and low grade and you want to use brachytherapy its OK,'' he said. ``For high-grade cancer and large volume, this is not a good treatment. This is one approach to treat prostate cancer, but this is not the gold standard.'' |
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