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| | | ![]() Strontium Ranelate Superior to Bisphosphonate for Bone Formation in Postmenopausal Osteoporosis: Presented at ECCEO By Bruce Sylvester VALENCIA, Spain -- March 24, 2011 -- Researchers report that bone-forming activity was much higher in postmenopausal women treated with strontium ranelate compared with those treated with alendronate, and the therapeutic effect increased up for to 12 months of treatment. The findings come from the largest to-date bone biopsy (histomorphometric) study of strontium ranelate versus alendronate in osteoporosis in women. The data was presented here on March 24 at the European Congress on Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ECCEO). “Bone formation in strontium ranelate-treated patients increased all of the time from 6 to 12 months,” said investigator and press briefing presenter Roland Chapurlat, MD, Hôpital Edouard Herriot, Lyon, France. In the double-blind study, researchers randomised 387 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis to treatment with strontium ranelate 2 g/day (n = 256) or alendronate 70 mg/week (n = 131). Patients had transiliac bone biopsies at baseline and after 6 or 12 months of treatment. Of the 785 bone biopsies, 84% were evaluable. Of these, they created a total of 268 paired biopsies, 179 for strontium ranelate (90 for 6 months and 89 for 12 months) and 89 for alendronate (43 for 6 months and 46 for 12 months). The primary endpoint of this study was mean difference between treatment groups for mineralising surfaces after 6 or 12 months. After 6 months, mineralising surface expressed as a percentage of bone surface, or MS/BS, was 2.94% in strontium ranelate-treated patients compared with.20% in alendronate-treated patients -- a highly statistically significant between-group difference of 2.73% (P <.001). The comparative treatment effect of strontium ranelate increased to 4.65% (P <.001) after 12 months, with patients achieving MS/BS values of 4.91% for strontium ranelate versus 0.28% for alendronate. “Most drugs we use in osteoporosis treat bone degradation, but strontium ranelate is helpful in increasing some degree of bone formation,” said Dr. Charpulat. “This translated into better bone health for these patients.” Funding for this study was provided by Servier. [Presentation title: Bone Formation Is Significantly Greater in Women on Strontium Ranelate Than in Those on Alendronate After 6 and 12 Months of Treatment: Histomorphometric Analysis From a Large Randomized Controlled Trial. Abstract OC16]
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