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1st appeared 14 September 1998 Two Years of Novel Therapy Reduces Spinal Fractures in Postmenopausal Women Researchers at UCSF and Kaiser Permanente Medical Center report that a novel hormone therapy reduces the risk of spinal fractures in women with osteoporosis by about 50 percent. "These findings are important because women with osteoporosis now have another very acceptable and effective alternative for treatment," said Bruce Ettinger, senior investigator at the Kaiser Permanente California Division of Research in Oakland, UCSF clinical professor of medicine, and lead author of the UCSF study. "Even for older women with fractures, it is not too late to do something about preventing the progression of osteoporosis." Ettinger will present his interim data today (September 14) at the European Congress of Osteoporosis. The MORE trial is a multicenter, Eli Lilly and Co. sponsored research study, which UCSF played a pivotal role in coordinating. It was designed primarily to evaluate the effect of raloxifene on bone mineral density (BMD) and spinal fractures in women with osteoporosis. MORE investigators found that the osteoporosis prevention drug, raloxifene, significantly reduced the risk of spinal fractures in osteoporatic postmenopausal women who took the drug for two years without increasing their risk of uterine and breast cancer. In addition, the drug was well tolerated and women who received raloxifene had no higher incidence of uterine bleeding and breast tenderness than those who took a placebo. The two-year analysis demonstrated that women who had no spinal fractures upon entry of the trial and received raloxifene were 52 percent less likely to have a first spinal fracture and women with a previous spinal fracture were 38 percent less likely to experience a new spinal fracture than those women who received placebo. "These are two-year interim results of the trial and this study will continue for five years to determine the long term effects of raloxifene on women," said Steven Cummings, UCSF professor of medicine and epidemiology and an author of the study. "Raloxifene is a promising drug because previous data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has shown that it reduced the risk of breast cancer by 70 percent in the same group of women." source: Abby Sinnott, News Services |
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