A randomised phase II study of oral pamidronate for the treatment of bone metastases from breast cancer.

Abstract 47 patients with progressive, painful, predominantly lytic bone metastases from breast cancer were included in a randomised double-blind phase II trial comparing the effects of pamidronate 150 and 300 mg daily. Oral pamidronate produced either sclerosis or stabilisation of lytic metastases for at least 24 weeks in 5 of 24 and 3 of 23 patients at the 300 and 150 mg dose levels, respectively. Evidence of symptomatic improvement was observed in 5 of 22 (23%) and 7 of 22 (32%) patients for symptomatic disease at the respective doses. These improvements were accompanied by a reduction in the rate of bone resorption as shown by suppression ( P =