Washington, DC—The Endocrine Society today issued a Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) for the diagnosis and treatment of Paget’s disease of the bone, a condition where one or more bones in the body become oversized and weak.
The CPG, entitled “Paget’s Disease of Bone: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline,” will appear in the December 2014 issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM), a publication of the Endocrine Society.
As part of its normal processes, the body breaks down old bone tissue and replaces it with new bone. When someone has Paget’s disease of the bone, the new tissue being formed can grow too large and weak.
About one million people nationwide have Paget’s disease of the bone, according to the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. Among people who are older than 55 years, an estimated 2 to 3 percent have Paget’s disease. The condition is rare in people who are younger than age 40.
“We’ve long known that bisphosphonates – a class of drugs often used to treat osteoporosis and other bone conditions – work well for treating Paget’s disease,” said Frederick R. Singer, MD, of the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, CA, and chair of the task force that authored the guideline. “One particular option – a one-time IV infusion of zoldedronate – has emerged as the preferred option. The medication can put Paget’s disease into remission for up to six years, and many patients prefer the one-time infusion to oral medications that can cause gastrointestinal side effects and must be taken over the course of several months.”
In the CPG, the Endocrine Society recommends that people with active Paget’s disease at risk of future complications be prescribed bisphosphonates. The Society suggests physicians consider the zoldedronate infusion as the first-line treatment unless there is a reason to avoid the treatment, such as reduced kidney function in the patient.
Recommendations from the CPG include:
Other members of the Endocrine Society task force that developed this CPG include: Henry G. Bone III of the Michigan Bone & Mineral Clinic in Detroit, MI; David J. Hosking of Nottingham City Hospital in Nottingham, U.K.; Kenneth W. Lyles of Duke University and VA Medical Centers in Durham, NC; Mohammad Hassan Murad of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN; Ian R. Reid of the University of Auckland in Auckland, New Zealand; and Ethel S. Siris of Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in New York, NY.
The Society established the CPG Program to provide endocrinologists and other clinicians with evidence-based recommendations in the diagnosis and treatment of endocrine-related conditions. Each CPG is created by a task force of topic-related experts in the field. Task forces rely on scientific reviews of the literature in the development of CPG recommendations. The Endocrine Society does not solicit or accept corporate support for its CPGs. All CPGs are supported entirely by Society funds.
The CPG was co-sponsored by the European Society of Endocrinology.
About Endocrine Society
Endocrinologists are at the core of solving the most pressing health problems of our time, from diabetes and obesity to infertility, bone health, and hormone-related cancers. The Endocrine Society is the world’s oldest and largest organization of scientists devoted to hormone research and physicians who care for people with hormone-related conditions.
The Society has more than 18,000 members, including scientists, physicians, educators, nurses, and students in 122 countries. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at www.endocrine.org. Follow us on X (formerly Twitter) at @TheEndoSociety and @EndoMedia.
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