Pairing new drugs helps bone growth, study says
By JULIE SEVRENS LYONS
San Jose Mercury News
SAN JOSE, CALIF. - Forgot milk? Better get to know Forteo and Fosamax.
In a new study with potentially life-altering implications for millions of Americans with osteoporosis, researchers at the University of California-San Francisco have found that new bone can be formed — and then maintained — by taking a hormone for one year and a popular prescription drug for the next.
The findings appeared in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
The results were positive enough that the researchers said physicians should be discussing the therapies with their patients.
Researchers studied 238 women in four cities. Those who took an experimental hormone similar to the FDA-approved Forteo, which builds bone, and followed it with a year of Fosamax, which prevents bone-density loss, saw the bone density in their spines increase an average of 12 percent.
But the researchers were floored by another finding: "If you use this bone-building agent ... for one year and you follow it by nothing, you seem to lose almost all the gains," said Dennis Black, lead author of the study and professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF.
The findings are important because patients are not supposed to take Forteo for more than two years because of cancer concerns.
Taking Fosamax after the hormone "is clearly an effective sequence," said Dr. Felicia Cosman, clinical director of the National Osteoporosis Foundation.
Cosman, whose own study on treating osteoporosis was also in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, found that Forteo can be taken in three-month stretches, with three months on the hormone and then three months on Fosamax, with similar success rates. That way, patients could take Forteo on again and off again for four years.
Editor's Note: Dr. Robert F. Gagel, Clinical Director, Bone Disease Program of Texas, offers his comments.
"The results of several studies, including those discussed in the Chronicle article, are clear. Combined Forteo™ and Fosamax™ offers no additional benefit and may actually lower the benefit seen with Forteo™ alone. In contrast Forteo™ followed by Fosamax™ (or other bisphosphonates) actually enhances bone mass by a substantial degree. Although the data presented in this article were published just this week, they were presented 11 months ago at the bone meetings and have been incorporated into our approach to osteoporosis therapy in the Bone Disease Program of Texas."
2:56 PM 8/12/2005