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VIEW ALL NEWSRisedronate doesn't prevent bone loss during chemotherapy
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Although risedronate prevents bone loss in postmenopausal women, the agent does not appear to benefit premenopausal women being treated with chemotherapy for primary breast cancer, researchers report in an advance on-line issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
"Premenopausal women undergoing chemotherapy lose approximately 5% of the bone mineral density in their lumbar spine at one year," lead investigator Dr. Stephanie L. Hines told Reuters Health.
"Concurrent treatment with risedronate," she added, "did not prevent this bone loss among these premenopausal women."
Dr. Hines of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, and colleagues came to this conclusion after analyzing data from 170 women who were randomized to receive oral risedronate 36 mg daily or placebo; all of the women also received oral calcium 600 mg and vitamin D 400 IU daily. All of these treatments began within a month of the inception of chemotherapy.
At 1 year, there was no significant between-group difference in bone loss. The risedronate group had a reduction in bone mineral density in the lumbar spine of 4.3%. The corresponding loss in the placebo group was 5.4%. There were similar findings for the femoral neck and total hip.
In light of these findings, concluded Dr. Hines, "there remains a need for alternative therapies to prevent bone loss in this population."
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