Emerging drugs for the management of cancer treatment induced bone loss

Abstract

Areas covered in this review: We focus our attention on data on the efficacy of currently available and emerging drugs for the management of cancer treatment induced bone loss (CTIBL) found in a PubMed research from 1997 till today.

Importance of the field: One of the most common and severe safety issues of the antihormonal therapy in both sexes is the CTIBL and the related fragility fractures. In postmenopausal women with estrogenic receptor positive breast cancer, the third-generation aromatase inhibitors (AIs) are the standard therapy. Observational retrospective studies have found that AIs treated patients had a high rate of bone loss and fracture risk (RR 1.3). Also in men with prostate cancer receiving androgen deprivation therapy, the increase in bone turnover and the consequent bone loss are very rapid and sustained significantly increasing the fracture risk.

What the reader will gain: The aim of our review is to provide the current evidences for the management of bone loss and fracture risk in this subpopulation.

Take home message: The very high rate of bone loss and the high incidence of fractures indicate that cancer patients at risk of CTIBL need to be carefully monitored and stratified for fracture risk. Although there is a strong evidence of efficacy in prevention of bone loss and reduction of fracture risk for many drugs approved for postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMO) and male osteoporosis, for CTIBL there are actually no drugs approved for this indication.