My Mothers First Zometa Treatment

I wrote a few weeks ago about my mother having a bone fracture in her back. And she has decided to start treatment to strengthen her bones. My mother had her first treatment of Zometa yesterday. Everything went well. This morning when we talked she said she had a hard time sleeping last night and she was tired this morning. Otherwise she said she is feeling good! I will keep everyone updated on her journey with Zometa and making her bones stronger. I am posting information again about the treatment my mother has started.

Please keep her in your prayers.


ZOMETA has treated over 3.8 million patients with bone metastases and bone complications from multiple myeloma worldwide in more than 9 years of real-world experience.

ZOMETA is a treatment for hypercalcemia of malignancy (HCM; a condition resulting in high calcium blood levels due to cancer). ZOMETA is also used to reduce and delay bone complications due to multiple myeloma and bone metastases from solid tumors; used with anti-cancer medicines. ZOMETA is not an anti-cancer therapy. If you have prostate cancer, you should have failed treatment with at least one hormonal therapy prior to taking ZOMETA.

Severe and occasionally incapacitating bone, joint, and/or muscle pain has been reported in patients taking bisphosphonates, including ZOMETA. HCM patients may experience flu-like symptoms (fever, chills, flushing, bone pain and/or joint or muscle pain).

ZOMETA is a prescription drug developed by Novartis Oncology. ZOMETA is given intravenously every 3 to 4 weeks in a doctor's office, a clinic or in a hospital on an "outpatient" basis. Once the infusion is prepared, the infusion process takes at least 15 minutes. Before ZOMETA was available, IV bisphosphonate therapy required at least 2 hours for administration.

ZOMETA reduces the risk of bone complications such as bone fracture, hypercalcemia of malignancy, and spinal cord compression. ZOMETA helps restore the normal process of bone remodeling, thus reducing the chance of bone complications. Even patients who have already had complications, such as bone fracture, radiation, or bone surgery, can be helped by treatment with ZOMETA. In these cases, ZOMETA may reduce the risk of additional complications.

ZOMETA was tested in three large studies involving over 3,000 cancer patients. These patients all had bone metastases from solid tumors (breast, prostate, lung, kidney cancer, genitourinary cancer, bladder cancer, colorectal cancer, other gastrointestinal cancers, liver cancer, head and neck cancer, malignant melanoma, sarcoma, and others) or multiple myeloma. They were all receiving chemotherapy or hormonal therapy. In these studies, patients who were given ZOMETA had fewer bone complications, a longer time until bone complications occurred, and a lower risk of developing bone complications, than patients who did not take ZOMETA.

www.zometa.com

Kayla Wharton