Thursday Aug 14, 2014 (foodconsumer.org) -- Researchers at University of Siena in Siena, Italy suggest in a review that clodronate treatment is effective at reducing risk of fractures in patients with osteoporosis or tumor diseases. 

Clodronic acid or clodronate is the first generation bisphosphonate indicated to prevent and treat osteoporosis in postmenopausal women and men to reduce the risk of vertebral fractures, hyperparathyroidism, hypercalcemia in cancer patients, multiple myeloma, and fracture related pain.

Clodronate is approved for human use in Canada, Australia, and the UK where it is marketed as Bonefos, Loron, Clodron and also in Italy as Clasteon, Difosfonal, Osteostab and others.

The review found study subjects receiving clodronate treatment were at 43%, 33% and 25% reduced risk of new vertebral fractures,  new non-vertebral fractures and new overall fractures, respectively, compared with those who did not take clodronate.

Also, when data from patients with cancer and patients with osteoporosis were meta-analyzed separately, similar associations were observed.

The review was based on data from 18 trials and treatment and follow-up ranged from three months through five years.

The review concluded "The results of the meta-analysis have demonstrated that clodronate is effective in reducing the risk of vertebral, non-vertebral, and overall fractures in patients with skeletal fragility." (David Liu)

Frediani B1, Baraldi E, Cremonesi G.  Effect of Clodronate Treatment on Risk of Fracture: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.  Calcif Tissue Int. 2014 Aug 12.