The drug, denosumab, was clinically tested on more than 1,400 men with non-metastatic prostate cancer undergoing androgen deprivation treatment. It showed that the drug helped reduce the risk the risk of osteoporosis and fracture in men receiving treatments for prostate cancer that can cause bone loss, the company said Monday.
Denosumab rendered greater increase in bone mineral density at the lumbar spine and non-vertebral sites. It also cut the incidence of new vertebral fractures in men receiving the drug by 50 percent compared to that for men who did not received the drug.
The Thousand Oaks, CA-based company is testing the drug in some 19,000 patients in total. Amgen will study the drug as a treatment for bone cancer and bone loss related to cancer treatment, as well as for other disorders.
The drug has minimal side effects with about 6 percent of denosumab patients developing serious infections in the study compared to 5 percent of those receiving a placebo.
The full data from the study will be published in a medical journal, but the drug maker said the results are on the same lines with previous studies evaluating bone mineral density in women with breast cancer and in post-menopausal women with low bone mass.
