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Researchers: new drug for osteoporosis shows promise
June 6, 1997
Web posted at: 12:08 a.m. EDT (0408 GMT)WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A new class of drugs that mimics the female hormone estrogen may help protect women's bones from osteoporosis without increasing the risks of heart disease and cancer, researchers say.
Preliminary results indicate the drug raloxifene, one in the class of drugs called Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators can increase bone mass, which women begin losing at an accelerated rate after menopause, according to a news release from the Duke University Medical Center.
More than 25 million Americans, most of them elderly women, are afflicted with the often crippling bone disease, which can lead to debilitating, even deadly, fractures in the hip and spine.
Interim results from a five-year global study of 12,000 women show raloxifene increased bone density by 1 percent to 2 percent among 2,000 women with normal or slightly abnormal bone mass. By contrast, women who took a placebo with calcium supplements lost bone mass over the same two-year period.
"We start to see a compound that looks like it has estrogen's benefits -- to the bones and to the heart and cardiovascular system -- without its risks to the uterus and uterine cancer, and to the breast and breast cancer," said Dr. Kristine Harper of Duke University, one of 150 U.S. sites participating in the research.
Osteoporosis drug: VXtreme streaming video
Still, raloxifene was not as effective as the hormone estrogen, which can increase bone mass by 5 percent to 6 percent over a two-year interval. Hormone-replacement therapy is often used to help prevent bone-thinning, but it can have risks.
Raloxifene also appears to lower so-called bad cholesterol (LDL) levels, as well as total cholesterol levels, which could reduce the chance of heart disease and stroke, researchers said.
The most commonly reported side effect of raloxifene was hot flashes; these affected 24 percent of patients compared to 18 percent of those taking the placebo.
The research was presented Thursday at the Fourth International Symposium on Osteoporosis: Research Advances and Clinical Applications.
Correspondent Eugenia Halsey contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Study: Depressed women may face higher risk of osteoporosis -October 17, 1996
- Drug halves number of hip fractures from osteoporosis -May 23, 1996
Related sites:
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- Duke University Medical Center
- National Institutes of Health - Homepage
- National Osteoporosis Foundation - Homepage
- Doctor's Guide to Osteoporosis Information and Resources
- Osteoporosis Drugs
- Calcium and Osteoporosis: How Much is Enough?
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