The therapeutic uses of calcitonin

Calcitonin is a potent hormonal inhibitor of bone resorption. Its major therapeutic effect is in the treatment of Paget's Disease of bone, in which it has been shown to reduce bone pain, lead to radiological and histological improvement in bone, and to restore abnormal biochemistry towards normal. Some patients are resistant to treatment, and in others resistance may develop during treatment. Although antibodies to pig or to salmon calcitonin develop in almost 50 per cent of treated patients it is only very rarely that resistance may be ascribed to antibodies. There are a number of other clinical states of increased resorption in which the value of calcitonin therapy has yet to be established.