Zoledronic Acid Protects Bones of Women Getting Breast Cancer Treatment (HealthDay)

TUESDAY, Aug. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Zoledronic acid preventsbone loss in breast cancer patients undergoing endocrine therapy andimproves bone mineral density after treatment, according to an Austrianstudy.

Adjuvant endocrine therapy is widely used in patients withendocrine-responsive early breast cancer, but the treatment causes boneloss in premenopausal women.

This study by Michael Gnant of the Medical University of Vienna,General Hospital Vienna, and colleagues included 404 premenopausal breastcancer patients randomly assigned to receive three years of eithergoserelin plus tamoxifen with or without zoledronic acid or goserelin plusanastrozole with or without zoledronic acid.

The women's bone mineral density was measured at the start of the studyand again at six, 12, 36 and 60 months.

After three years of treatment, the women who received endocrinetherapy alone (199) showed significant loss of bone mineral density (BMD).Partial recovery of BMD was noted at five years (two years aftercompletion of endocrine therapy), but their BMD was still lower than itwas at the start of the study.

BMD among the women who received zoledronic acid (Zometa) whileundergoing endocrine therapy (205) remained stable at three years andincreased at five years.

The study was published online and was expected to be in the Septemberprint issue of The Lancet Oncology.

"The findings presented here offer important information related tobone health for premenopausal women undergoing adjuvant endocrinetherapy," Gnant wrote.

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