Coping with Bone Issues in Ca... Video Transcript

Webcast Transcript

The bisphosphonates that we use typically these days are intravenous bisphosphonates, and they're called Zometa and Aredia, and they're given about every three or four weeks, so not particularly often, over anywhere between 15 minutes for Zometa and a couple of hours for Aredia. The bulk of the data in the cancer literature is for Aredia, and there's emerging data for Zometa as well which, at least in the laboratory, appears to be significantly more active than Aredia, and so potentially more beneficial, and hopefully just as safe.

ANNOUNCER: Side effects appear to be minimal.

ROGER WALTZMAN, MD: Sometimes people can have a flu-like symptom the day after the infusion: a fever and chills and that sort of thing. But it's almost always resolving within a day or so.

ANNOUNCER: Once bone complications are stablized, patients are often encouraged to re-establish an exercise routine.

ROGER WALTZMAN, MD: It does not need to be a very hard-paced, rapid, aerobic activity; it can really be simple walking or fast walking or something along that line. The importance of this is really critical, because we can do so much with medications, but maintaining physical health by exercise is really important as well.

JESSICA WING: I do yoga sometimes, and there are positions that I can't do that put pressure on the neck because although the disease has been eliminated by the radiation, there still could be some weakness in the bone. So I just have to be more aware, especially of my neck and my spine.

ANNOUNCER: But for Jessica, alleviating the painful and debilitating symptoms of bone complications meant being able to return to her normal routine.

JESSICA WING: Now that my bone disease seems to be stable, I'm back to exercising. I swim. I do yoga. I hike. I'm going to go scuba diving. So it's nice.

Being physically sound and being able to do the things that somebody my age should do makes me feel really good. And it makes it a lot easier for me not to obsess about my illness or be afraid for the future.

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