Prostate cancer and bone metastases: medical treatment

Prostate cancer is the most common malignancy in men in the United States. With the long natural history of the disease, management of skeletal morbidity related to advanced prostate cancer becomes a major public health issue. The standard of care in advanced prostate cancer is androgen deprivation therapy. This may accelerate the development of osteoporosis and further exacerbate the risks of having adverse skeletal-related events develop. Recently, the use of bisphosphonates in men who have not responded to androgen deprivation therapy has been shown to reduce the incidence of skeletal-related events with time. Questions remain as to whether bisphosphonates should be broadly applied to earlier stages of the disease or tailored to men at higher risk of having bone-related morbidity. Work is ongoing to improve other approaches to the medical treatment of bone metastases in patients with advanced prostate cancer including the use of radiopharmaceuticals and combined chemotherapy.