The bone is the most common site of origin of distant metastasis in prostate cancer, and advanced prostate cancer has an extremely high rate of bone metastasis.
Therefore, management of bone metastases is an important issue in the treatment of prostate cancer. Although relatively rare because the main characteristic of bone metastases is osteoblastic, pathological fracture and bone-related events, such as radiotherapy for the alleviation of pain and paralysis, are some of the major problems associated with bone metastases. To date, no aggressive therapy has been available to address these problems. However, because of the discovery of novel drugs such as zoledronic acid and denosumab, the use of drugs to control osteoclasts has become the standard treatment for bone metastasis. Management of bone metastases may take on new dimensions even in the near future because of the continuing development, of therapy, including the discovery of a new radium isotope and the development of targeted therapy drugs, such as dasatinib and cabozantinib. In this review, we describe the current management strategies, centering on zoledronic acid, potential new drugs, and the future prospect of bone metastasis therapy.
Written by:
Kamoto T. Are you the author?
Dept. of Urology, University of Miyazaki, Japan.
Reference: Gan To Kagaku Ryoho. 2012 Aug;39(8):1178-82.
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 22902440
Article in Japanese.
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