New Canadian Study Reveals Concern for Thighbone Fracture with Bone Drugs

Toronto, ONThe Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is out with a new Canadian study that points to a slightly higher risk of a certain type of thighbone fracture in women who take bisphosphonates such as Fosamax for long periods.

Fox News reported on the study this morning, via Reuter's Health. The report identified Laura Y. Park-Wylie, of St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, as one of the researchers who worked on the study.

While the study was based on women from the province of Ontario in Canada, the findings are thought to be important to the North American population in light of the estimated 10 million Americans who currently suffer from bone thinning. The majority of those patients, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, are postmenopausal women.

Reuters Health said that some 205,000 women who had reached 68 years of age or older and who had taken bone drugs were studied. Of those, nearly 10,000 had suffered typical hip fractures.

However, 716 women had suffered the unusual type of thighbone fracture identified in the study, following a start of a bone drug treatment regimen.

Bisphosphonates such as Merck's Fosamax remain an inexpensive and popular way to treat osteoporosis, which is caused by the gradual thinning of bone due to aging. And even though longer treatment with bone drugs resulted in a 24 percent decrease in hip fractures, the incidence of thighbone fractures appeared to increase.

For example, after taking bone drugs for five years, about one in 1,000 women were found to have suffered a thigh fracture within the next year.

According to the research, that works out to nearly three times the risk when compared to the risk factor for those who had taken bone drugs for three months or less after taking into account other risk factors, the researchers say.

Park-Wylie was quick to point out that "women with osteoporosis who are at high risk of fractures should not stop taking their treatment," she said in comments to Reuters Health.

That said, doctors have recently been considering the wisdom of putting their patients on a temporary bisphosphonate holiday in an attempt to lessen the risk of an adverse fracture. In October, manufacturers of bisphosphonates such as Fosamax were required to include a warning about fracture of the thighbone on product labels.