Six or 10 years of alendronate maintain BMD. (Two Long-Term Studies).

SAN ANTONIO -- Ongoing treatment with alendronate maintained or increased bone density in postmenopausal women when the duration of treatment extended to 6 or to 10 years.

That finding emerged from two studies sponsored by Merck, which markets alendronate as Fosamax. But bone mineral density plateaus or begins to drop in women when they stop using alendronate, according to the reports, which were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

These findings suggest that an ongoing alendronate regimen may help selected women, commented Dr. Socrates E. Papapoulos, director of bone and mineral research at Leiden (the Netherlands) University. Dr. Papapoulos was not involved in either study.

"For patients with a high risk of fracture, I would prescribe 10 mg of alendronate per day on an ongoing basis, provided the regimen is safe," he said at the meeting. Dr. Papapoulos has received research support and/or remuneration from all of the major companies involved in the development of bisphosphonates.

For women who have a low risk of fracture, he recommended prescribing a bisphosphonate such as alendronate for 5 years, then stopping the drug and following patients' bone density.

The 10-year study originally enrolled 994 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. The women were first randomized to receive a daily dose of 5 mg, 10 mg, or 20 mg of alendronate or placebo. The latest results came from an extension of this study, which included 247 of the women.

The researchers followed these women during years 8-10 of their treatment. This phase of the study included three groups: women who received 5 mg of alendronate daily for 10 years; women who received 10 mg of alendronate daily for 10 years; and women who had ...