Ibandronatea well-tolerated intravenous and oral treatment for metastatic bone disease

摘要

Tolerability of drug therapies is an important factor when selecting palliative treatments for use in cancer patients. This is particularly the case when choosing long-term bisphosphonate therapy for management of skeletal metastases, because of the high disease-related morbidity burden and the toxicities associated with anticancer drugs. In a phase III trial of patients with bone metastases from breast cancer, intravenous (i.v.) ibandronate 6 mg infused every 3-4 weeks for 96 weeks has a similar safety profile to placebo, with no renal safety concerns. Pooled data from two phase III studies of oral ibandronate found that a daily 50 mg dose was well-tolerated, with few gastrointestinal side effects. These results suggest that oral and i.v. ibandronate have important safety and tolerability advantages over existing i.v. and oral bisphosphonate treatments.