Recently Diagnosed or Relapsed? Stop Looking For a Miracle Cure, and Use Evidence-Based Therapies To Enhance Your Treatment and Prolong Your Remission
Multiple Myeloma an incurable disease, but I have spent the last 25 years in remission using a blend of conventional oncology and evidence-based nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle therapies from peer-reviewed studies that your oncologist probably hasn't told you about.
Click the orange button to the right to learn more about what you can start doing today.
- You are here:
- Home »
- Blog »
- Multiple Myeloma »
- Bisphosphonates or Denosumab in Myeloma
Bisphosphonates or Denosumab in Myeloma
Bisphosphonates or Denosumab in Myeloma? Both are a piece of the FDA-approved standard-of-care for newly diagnosed MM patients. Both will strengthen the bone, reducing your risk of skeletal events.
There are two main differences between the two drugs.
- One, denosumab is not secreted through the kidneys. If you have kidney involvement, you may want to undergo a bisphosphonate instead (Zometa, Aredia, etc.).
- Tw0, denosumab costs much more than bisphosphonate therapy. This may or may concern you. Make sure your health insurance plan will cover it.
Bisphophonates and Denosumab: How do they work and how do they differ.
In my experience as a long-term MM survivor, the main benefit of both of these therapies for MM patients is that both are fast-acting and should prevent bone fractures in NDMM. Long-term, I would consider evidence-based non-conventional bone health therapies such as nutrition, supplementation and lifestyle therapies to strengthen your bones.
Email me at David.PeopleBeatingCancer@gmail.com with questions about managing your MM with both conventional and non-conventional therapies.
Good luck,
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Hypercalcemia of Malignancy: What Osteoporosis Drug Is Best?
TOPLINE:
A real-world cohort study showed no difference in efficacy between denosumab and bisphosphonates in treating inpatients with hypercalcemia of malignancy.
METHODOLOGY:
- A retrospective study of electronic health record data from January 2016 to April 2025 involved adults admitted to three hospitals with blood calcium level exceeding 10.5 mg/dL who received either an intravenous bisphosphonate or denosumab.
- The primary outcome was the time to calcium normalization (≤ 10.5 mg/dL).
- Cox proportional hazards model and propensity-score overlap weighting were used.
TAKEAWAY:
- The study included 734 patients (50% women; mean age, 67 years; 45% non-Hispanic Black and 30% Hispanic) and 822 inpatient admissions.
- The most common malignancies were multiple myeloma (17%), lung carcinoma (15%), and lymphoma (15%).
- The agents used were pamidronate (74%), zoledronic acid (21%), and denosumab (5%).
- Median time to calcium normalization was 2.24 days for denosumab and 2.13 days for bisphosphonates (hazard ratio [HR], 0.81; 95% CI, 0.55-1.19).
- An exploratory analysis found that zoledronic acid was associated with a faster normalization time than denosumab (HR, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.35-0.89).
IN PRACTICE:
“Prospective randomized trials are warranted to confirm these findings.…Until such data are available, our results support the flexibility of selecting any of these agents based on individual patient characteristics and institutional protocols,” study author and presenter Jovan Milosavljevic, MD, of the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, New York City, said.
Bisphosphonates or Denosumab in Myeloma Bisphosphonates or Denosumab in Myeloma