Cancer drug Glivec may harm bones

	Tweet

Glivec (imatinib), which has dramatically improved survival prospects for some cancer patients, can interfere with bone development, according to U.S. researchers.

Results of a study published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine indicated that the drug inhibits bone formation and resorption—a process known as bone remodelling.

Novartis has not found similar adverse effects in a large database it keeps of clinical trials and post-marketing data, though the study is interesting enough to warrant further research, said a spokesman for the drug maker Novartis AG.

"We have done a review of our safety database...We’re not seeing reporting of these adverse events. But we will be conducting further studies to better understand,” he said.

The side effect was detected by Dr. Ellin Berman and colleagues at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York after some patients on the drug developed low levels of serum phosphate, a mineral important in bone formation.

The new finding was based on just 16 patients with low mineral levels, and the full significance of the discovery has yet to be ascertained, the company noted.

Glivec, or Gleevec as it is known in the United States, was approved 5 years ago. The drug has transformed life expectancy for people with chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) and gastrointestinal stromal tumuors (GIST). Five years of use shows patients taking Glivec have a 90 percent survival rate.

The bone problem is mentioned as an infrequent side effect in prescription information, Novartis said, but the results of the study in which this occurred were not clinically significant. 

RELATED STORIES:
Men with BRCA2 gene mutation have higher cancer risk   Does sugar feed cancer?   Cancer Therapy: A Role for MAPK Inhibitors Combined with mTORC1 Inhibitors   Research Reveals What Drives Lung Cancer’s Spread   Study Identifies New Form of Inherited Risk of Cancer   Bacteria could make new library of cancer drugs that are too complex to create artificially   Promise for Treatment of Renal Cell Cancer   FISH-ing for Links Between Cancer and Aging   Computer-aided mammography improves tumor detection   Co-ordinating cancer care   Vitamin D protects cells from stress that can lead to cancer   Cancer Stem Cells: Know Thine Enemy   Cancer Risks for Urban African-American Women Grow as Healthy Diets Become More Difficult to Maintai   Research Finds New Link Between Inflammation and Cancer   New imaging technique accurately finds cancer cells, fast   Parents of kids with cancer face traumatic stress   Novel therapy may prove effective in treatment of 30 percent of cancers   Researcher Investigates Ultrasound Use to Treat Cancer   Dietary supplements can up cancer risk   Few young cancer survivors get best follow-up   NYU Langone scientists find key pathway implicated in progression of childhood cancer   Cancer centers and high-volume hospitals may examine more lymph nodes in cancer patients

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]