An osteoporosis drug has shown that it can help fight bone loss for patients with certain head and neck cancers, according to a Ohio State University study.
Zoledronic acid, known by its brand name Zometa, is currently approved by the FDA to help treat osteoporosis patients, but now research is showing it can also help treat bone loss as a result of other diseases. For cancer patients, bone loss comes from growing tumors.
A press release from the university explains how the research was conducted, and the hopeful results:
The researchers injected mice with oral squamous cell carcinoma cells from cats to create a disease model for the study. They assigned mice to one of four groups: animals with and without tumors that received a placebo treatment, and mice with and without tumors that received a zoledronic acid treatment.
Animals treated with the drug retained twice as much total bone as did mice with cancer that were untreated. The bone that was present after treatment was a combination of reduced loss of pre-existing bone and an increase in new bone formation...
Powerful images of the animals skulls revealed that the bone loss was so severe in some untreated animals with cancer that their tooth roots were exposed. In comparison, animals with cancer that received the drug retained enough bone to keep the tooth roots covered with bone. Overall, on average, mice with cancer that received the drug treatment retained enough bone to match the amount of total bone in mice without tumors.
The goal is to stop the vicious cycle, said Thomas Rosol, professor of veterinary biosciences at Ohio State and senior author of the study.
Chemotherapy, radiation and surgery are all used to treat head and neck cancers. Zoledronic acid is a very safe drug and all it does is block bone resorption, so patients could receive all of the standard treatments, and this drug could be added as an additional benefit. Thats the overall concept.
The findings were published the journal Cancer Research.
