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.
The side effects ONJ and renal dysfunction were twice as severe when bisphosphonates were given every 4 weeks compared to given every 12 weeks.
Bisphosphonate Therapy- Zoledronic Acid (Zometa, Zomera, Aclasta and Reclast) and others is effective in reducing multiple myeloma bone damage aka skeletal-related events (SRE) such as fractures, spinal cord compression, and surgery or radiation to the bone.
Bisphosphonate therapy is FDA approved, probably covered by your insurance and will be suggested by your oncologist to stabilize you if you are a newly diagnosed myeloma patient.
To a multiple myeloma patient like me, maintaining bone health is almost the same thing as managing my blood cancer. According toJournal of Bone and Mineral Research, “Approximately 80% of multiple myeloma patients experience a pathological fracture over the course of their disease and 90% will have bone lesions.”
That is an x-ray of what my neck looks like today. MM ate my C5 so Dr. Emory screwed a plate to both my C4 and C6. I then underwentbisphosphonate therapy.
The Bone Health Guide is one of the 16 guides in the PeopleBeatingCancer Multiple Myeloma Cancer Coaching Program. The Bone Health guide identifies 11 different evidence-based, non-toxic therapies that enhance bone health. I do 10 follow 10 of these therapies weekly.
The point made clear in the studies linked and excerpted below is that zoledronic acid is toxic and can cause collateral damage in the form of osteonecrosis of the jaw and/or renal dysfunction. Also, like all toxic therapies bisphosphonates may cause a number of short-term side effects that each patient should be aware of.
The study discussed below shows that 12 weeks dosing of bisphophonates is just as effective as 4 week dosing yet causes half of the side effects ONJ and renal dysfunction. Twenty plus years living with multiple myeloma has taught me to minimize toxicity whenever possible.
Do you have multiple myeloma? Are you experiencing bone damage? For more information about managing your bone health scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply ASAP.
“Catherine H. Van Poznak, MD, University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, showed that after 3 years, the cumulative incidence of ONJ in all cancer patients was 2.8%.
However, the risk was higher in patients with multiple myeloma. For those patients, the cumulative incidence was 4.3%, or 1 in 40 patients, during a 3-year period...
More frequent dosing of zoledronic acid (every 3–4 weeks) was associated with an almost fivefold increased risk for ONJ.
The risk was highest for patients who wore dentures, particularly removable dentures, for patients who had previously undergone dental surgery, and for current smokers…
The results indicated an overall 2-year incidence rate of ONJ of 1.7%, or 0.9% for bisphosphonate users, and 2.7% for patients given denosumab (multiple brands)…”
“Patients who have metastatic breast and prostate cancers and multiple myeloma are at risk of skeletal-related events (SRE)…
Zoledronic acid is a bisphosphonate that is FDA approved to treat bone metastases. It reduces SREs when given every 3 to 4 weeks, but an optimal dosing interval has not been determined….
Current interest in bisphosphonates for reducing and delaying SREs focuses on maximizing the benefit and minimizing the risk of these agents…
The study enrolled 1,822 patients, with 911 patients receiving zoledronic acid every 4 weeks, and 911 patients receiving the drug every 12 weeks…
In both study arms, 47% of the patients had breast cancer, 38% had prostate cancer, and 15% had multiple myeloma…”
Comparing the two arms:
“No significant difference occurred in the proportion of patients with one or more SREs-
No significant difference occurred in the time to SRE between the two study arms-
No differences were found in pain scores or performance status over time-
The only difference between the two arms resulted in side effects:
Rates of osteonecrosis of the jaw were 2% with zoledronic acid at every 4 weeks and 1% at every 12 weeks-
Renal dysfunction rates were 1.2% (every 4 weeks) and 0.6%, (every 12 weeks)-“
The side effects ONJ and renal dysfunction were twice as severe when bisphophonate were given every 4 weeks compared to given every 12 weeks.
[…] for all newly diagnosed MM patients. There is nothing magic about bisphosphonates. To Learn More about Bisphophonates- click now Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions. David […]
hi my names Jordan. im in grade 8 and im doing a science project on bone cancer. I would really like to know what are the long term and short term effects of bone cancer? please and thank you. I need an answer by Thursday and I cant seem to find one, seems like you know a lot so I would appreciate it. thanks again!
Your phrase “bone cancer” can be interpreted several ways. I have multiple myeloma which is referred to as both a BLOOD cancer and sometimes referred to as BONE cancer. Because blood is made in our bones. Either way I can provide you with information for your science project if you reply to me with specifics.
Further, if you mean bone tumor which signals bone cancer, I have linked information below.
