Enhancing Quality of Life for Breast Cancer Patients with Bone Metastases

Abstract

The skeleton is the most common site of metastasis for women with advanced stage breast cancer (5, 8, 22). Severe osteolysis that is often associated with this stage of the disease can lead to skeletal related events such as pathological fracture severe bone pain and hypocalcaemia. The current standard of care for treating osteolytic bone metastases includes palliating bone pain through radiation therapy and blocking ongoing osteoclastic bone resorption with a bisphosphonate. Results from clinical trials indicate that anywhere from 6 to 26% of metastatic bone lesions treated with radiation therapy will go on to develop pathological fractures (11 23). Recent clinical data has shown that zoledronic acid a third generation bisphosphonate decreased the number of skeletal related events by 39% compared to placebo (1 2). Clinicians recognize that prevention of skeletal complications considerably improves the quality of life for these patients (4); and although bisphosphonates can decrease the chances of a patient developing a skeletal complication many are still at risk. In an effort to address this issue we hypothesized that the combination of an anabolic agent parathyroid hormone (PTH 1-34) in conjunction with a bisphosphonate (zoledronic acid ZA) and radiation therapy (RTX) for the treatment of metastatic bone lesion from breast cancer would stimulate new bone fdrmation improve mechanical properties and thus decrease the risk of subsequent pathological fractures.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2007
Accession Number
ADA470284

Entities

People

  • Kenneth A. Mann
  • Matthew J Allen
  • Sarah A. Arrington
  • Timothy A. Damron

Organizations

  • Syracuse University

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Biomedical Research
  • Bone And Bones
  • Bone Diseases
  • Bone Fractures
  • Breast Cancer
  • Cells
  • Health Services
  • Mechanical Properties
  • Mechanics
  • Medical Personnel
  • Neoplasms
  • Orthopedics
  • Osteogenesis
  • Osteoporosis
  • Regression Analysis
  • Three Dimensional

Fields of Study

  • Medicine

Readers

  • Gulf War Illness and Chronic Multisymptom Illness in Veterans.
  • Immunology and Pathology
  • Oncology (Cancer Research).