Treatment of painful prostatic bone metastases with oral etidronate disodium.

A class of drugs called diphosphonates have been used for several years in benign disorders of ossification such as Paget disease. Recently, these compounds have been applied to treating hypercalcemia of malignancy and painful bone metastases. We have used one of the oral diphosphonates, etidronate disodium, to palliate pain in 12 patients suffering from multiple bone metastases from prostate cancer. All of the patients had progressive metastatic disease following earlier endocrine therapy. Ten of 12 (83%) patients had a positive subjective and clinical response to treatment with oral etidronate disodium. Daily narcotic usage and pain intensity (measured by a zero to 10 pain scale) both decreased significantly on the etidronate protocol. There were no side effects associated with the drug in our patients.