Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Bone

Sequential osteoporosis treatment—the order of things

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 11, pages 570–572 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

A recent study shows that preceding teriparatide treatment with 2 years of denosumab treatment leads to lower BMD after 4 years than either administering these interventions in the opposite order or combining them initially. However, BMD measurements could be biased in favour of using teriparatide first, owing to the time required for completion of secondary mineralization.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: BMD changes with antiresorptive and anabolic agents.

References

  1. Leder, B. Z. et al. Denosumab and teriparatide transitions in postmenopausal osteoporosis (the DATA-Switch study): extension of a randomised controlled trial. Lancet http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)61120-5.

  2. Zebaze, R. & Seeman, E. Cortical bone: a challenging geography. J. Bone Miner. Res. 30, 24–29 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Vestergaard, P., Jorgensen, N. R., Schwarz, P. & Mosekilde, L. Effects of treatment with fluoride on bone mineral density and fracture risk—a meta-analysis. Osteoporos. Int. 19, 257–268 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Obermayer-Pietsch, B. M. et al. Effects of two years of daily teriparatide treatment on BMD in postmenopausal women with severe osteoporosis with and without prior antiresorptive treatment. J. Bone Miner. Res. 23, 1591–1600 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Cosman, F. et al. Effects of intravenous zoledronic acid plus subcutaneous teriparatide [rhPTH(1–34)] in postmenopausal osteoporosis. J. Bone Miner. Res. 26, 503–511 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Abrahamsen, B., Osmond, C. & Cooper, C. Life expectancy in patients treated for osteoporosis: observational cohort study using national Danish prescription data. J. Bone Miner. Res. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jbmr.2478.

  7. Rosen, C. J. & Khosla, S. Placebo-controlled trials in osteoporosis—proceeding with caution. N. Engl. J. Med. 363, 1365–1367 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Tsai, J. N. et al. Comparative effects of teriparatide, denosumab, and combination therapy on peripheral compartmental bone density, microarchitecture, and estimated strength: the DATA-HRpQCT study. J. Bone Miner. Res. 30, 39–45 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Holbæk Hospital, Smedelundsgade 6, DK-4300, Holbæk, Denmark

    Bo Abrahamsen

Authors
  1. Bo Abrahamsen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bo Abrahamsen.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

B.A. declares support from institutional research contracts to Holbæk Hospital from Amgen, Novartis and UCB.

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Abrahamsen, B. Sequential osteoporosis treatment—the order of things. Nat Rev Endocrinol 11, 570–572 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2015.134

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2015.134

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing