Promising New Treatment Option for Primary Bone Cancer

A new study conducted by researchers at the Mayo Clinicshows that samarium-153 lexidronam (Quadramet), approved by the US Food and DrugAdministration (FDA) in 1997 for the treatment of pain in patients withmetastatic bone lesions, can be used at higher doses to treat osteosarcoma. Theresults of the study were published recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology(20:189-196, 2002).

According to the study, 24 of 30 patients undergoing treatment withsamarium-153 lexidronam experienced good to excellent results in delaying localprogression of their disease. All patients in the study had failed two or moreprevious therapies and had multiple sites of bone cancer. In two patients, thecancer had been in complete remission for more than 2 years following treatment.

"Quadramet is an effective treatment option in helping to relieve thepain often experienced by patients with metastatic bone cancer. We are veryencouraged by these early results that indicate Quadramet may also be useful inthe treatment of osteosarcoma," said H. Joseph Reiser, PhD, president andCEO of Cytogen, manufacturer of the radiopharmaceutical agent.

Targeted Therapy

Osteosarcoma occurs most often in teenagers and is twice as common in malesas in females. Standard treatment for osteosarcoma consists of surgery orchemotherapy. "In some patients, surgery or chemotherapy cannot adequatelycontrol osteosarcoma. These study results indicate that Quadramet could be a newtreatment option for patients who would otherwise have a poor prognosis,"said Peter Anderson, MD, PhD, a pediatric oncologist at the Mayo Clinic.

Primary bone cancers commonly result in the formation of new bone regardlessof whether the tumor remains confined to the skeleton or has spread to softtissues such as the lung. Samarium-153 lexidronam targets these areas of newbone formation, delivering site-specific radiation.