New Treatment Fiights Osteoporosis in Women

By Paul Swiech

BLOOMINGTON – A Bloomington doctor is offering a new treatment she hopes helps in the fight against osteoporosis.

Dr. Genene Radden of OSF Rheumatology has begun performing Reclast on postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. Reclast is an infusion treatment that patients receive intravenously in their arm.

Each treatment is performed in Radden’s office suite in Eastland Medical Plaza I and lasts about 15 minutes. The good news is that the treatment is needed only once a year, Radden said.

“As a rheumatologist, it’s exciting to be able to offer something that stays in the patient’s system for a year,” she said.

Osteoporosis is a condition of thinning bone, putting patients at risk of fractured or broken bones and reduced mobility. Osteoporosis affects 10 million Americans and another 34 million are estimated to have low bone mass, placing them at risk for the disease. About 80 percent of people with osteoporosis are women.

Women at higher risk of osteoporosis include smokers, heavy drinkers, and women with a low estrogen level, low calcium intake and low vitamin D intake, Radden said.

Patients with osteoporosis often are prescribed Fosamax or Actonel, pills taken weekly, or Boniva, a pill or infusion taken monthly. Each works to slow bone loss and build bone mass.

“For patients who take these medicines, they are working,” Radden said. The problem is lack of compliance on the part of many patients, who forget to take the pills when needed or who just stop taking them.

In addition, gastrointestinal upset is a side effect for some patients, she said.

Reclast addresses the lack of compliance because it is a yearly infusion given in the doctor’s office, Radden said. Reclast works by moving to the sites of bone thinning. The medicine binds to the bone to prevent further calcium loss and is effective for a year, when another treatment is needed, Radden explained.

Patients have not reported gastrointestinal problems because the medicine is given by IV rather than taken orally. But patients with a history of atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat) and a history of cancer treated with radiation should talk with their doctor before taking Reclast, Radden said.

Radden has just begun performing Reclast on patients so doesn’t yet have local results. In addition, the impact of Reclast isn’t known beyond three years because that’s how long it was researched on patients before it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Yet, Radden remains positive.

The cost of Reclast to patients is similar to other osteoporosis medicine, she said. Radden said the cost is $1,000 per infusion but patients pay $50 to $100 because Medicare covers 80 percent of the cost and secondary insurance covers another 10 percent or more.

(c) 2008 Pantagraph. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.