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Pharmacological Aspects of Antiresorptive Drugs: Bisphosphonates and Denosumab

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Medication-Related Osteonecrosis of the Jaws

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Abstract

Bisphosphonates and denosumab are the most widely used classes of antiresorptive osteotrop drugs worldwide. They are used to treat a variety of bone disorders including osteoporosis, metastatic bone disease and hypercalcemia of malignancy. Bisphosphonates are administered either orally or intravenously, while denosumab is injected subcutaneously. While bisphosphonates are not metabolized and have a strong affinity to the bone and a very long half-life in the bone (months–years), denosumab is an antibody which is metabolized, not specifically stored, in the bone and has a short half-life (weeks). Both substance classes have strong inhibitory effects towards bone resorption and are therefore used for the treatment of osteoporosis and metastatic bone disease as well as other bone disorders with great success. Generally, bisphosphonates and denosumab are well tolerated and have few side effects. However, both substance classes of osteotrop antiresorptives have one side effect in common, namely, osteonecrosis of the jaw.

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Ackowledgements:

This chapter contains excerpts of parts of the book „Bisphosphonates in medical practice-actions, side effects, indications and strategies“ by ReinerBartl et al. [1], Reprinted with kind permission of Springer Science and Business Media.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ehrenfelsstrasse 5, 81375, Munich, Germany

    Reiner Bartl

  2. Rosenstrasse 2, 82319, Starnberg, Germany

    Emmo von Tresckow

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  1. Reiner Bartl
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  2. Emmo von Tresckow
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Correspondence to Emmo von Tresckow .

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  1. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Sur, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Sven Otto

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Bartl, R., von Tresckow, E. (2015). Pharmacological Aspects of Antiresorptive Drugs: Bisphosphonates and Denosumab. In: Otto, S. (eds) Medication-Related Osteonecrosis of the Jaws. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43733-9_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-43733-9_1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-662-43732-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-43733-9

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