There is fresh hope for Tasmanian devils, with a new drug treatment showing dramatic improvements in facial tumours that are destroying the marsupials' population.

Trials by a Tasmanian government research team using a drug called EBC-46 slowed the growth of tumours in four captive devils in a way that had not been previously possible. Results of the trials will be released on Monday.

Research team leader and veterinary pathologist Stephen Pyecroft said the results of trials using the drugs, produced by the Queensland biotechnology company QBiotics, were ''remarkable''.

However, researchers warned that the findings were preliminary, and papers from the Tasmanian study are yet to be published.