Effecten van bisfosfonaten buiten het skelet

Bisphosphonates are effective and relative safe and cheap drugs, used for the treatment of different bone diseases, such as osteoporosis. Recently, several non-skeletal effects have been described, such as a reduced risk of myocardial infarction, cancer and death. Therefore, the question arises whether there are other, non-skeletal, indications for bisphosphonate treatment. However, there is currently insufficient evidence with respect to cardiovascular endpoints, death, cancer incidence, and infectious diseases for treatment with bisphosphonates. This is primarily caused by relative short follow-up duration, and several kinds of bias in the different studies. Therefore, prescribing bisphosphonates outside the current indications is not appropriate as long as there are no randomized trials showing a positive effect for certain diseases, specific risk groups, or the general population.

Conflict of interest and financial support: none declared.