title: Consensus on the utility of bone markers in the malignant bone disease setting.
abstract: Biochemical markers of bone turnover provide insight into ongoing rates of skeletal metabolism and tumor-bone interactions in patients with malignant bone disease. This article reviews the available recent evidence assessing the potential of bone markers for detecting and monitoring malignant bone lesions in patients with advanced cancers, and for assessing overall skeletal health and response to antiresorptive therapies in patients at all stages of cancer progression. Most data thus far are for urinary N-terminal cross-linked telopeptide of type I collagen (NTX) in predicting risks of skeletal morbidity and death and monitoring response to zoledronic acid in patients with bone metastases. Ongoing studies are evaluating such correlations for other markers and therapies. Emerging evidence suggests that bone markers may help identify patients at high risk for bone metastasis or bone lesion progression, thereby allowing improved follow-up. Results from ongoing clinical trials evaluating such potential applications of bone markers are awaited.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Research Centre, Academic Unit of Clinical Oncology, Weston Park Hospital, University of Sheffield, Whitham Road,Sheffield, England, UK. r.e.coleman@sheffield.ac.uk
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Coleman
authors.forename: Luis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: Fred
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Saad
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cook
authors.forename: Peyman
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hadji
authors.forename: Evangelos
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Terpos
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Garnero
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Jean-Jacques
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Body
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Ker-Ai
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Major
authors.forename: Meletios
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dimopoulos
authors.forename: Allan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lipton
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000628:therapy; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor