Abstract
Biochemical markers (biomarkers) are increasingly being used in clinical practice. Bone biomarkers have been developed from collagen metabolism and other pathways which report on different aspects of the status of bone formation, bone resorption and bone remodelling. Simple assays for these markers in blood and urine have been developed. Markers for both bone resorption and formation have been correlated with the presence of metastatic bone disease and with its associated skeletal complications, such as pain and fracture and predictive models have been developed which are able to assess the risk of such complications in individual patients. Bone biomarkers are also very useful in monitoring therapy using bisphosphonates and other bone-specific drugs and trials are underway to assess the possible role of bone biomarkers in directing anti-resorptive therapy. Bone biomarkers have played and continue to play a role in development of new bone-specific therapies, such as RANK-ligand inhibitors and cathepsin K. Further novel and more specific bone markers may be anticipated as modern techniques such as proteomics are increasingly applied in this field.
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Brown, J.E., Chow, E. (2009). Bone Biomarkers in Research and Clinical Practice. In: Kardamakis, D., Vassiliou, V., Chow, E. (eds) Bone Metastases. Cancer Metastasis – Biology and Treatment, vol 12. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9819-2_5
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