Prognostic role of serum parathyroid hormone levels in advanced prostate cancer patients undergoing zoledronic acid administration

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84).

Secondary hyperparathyroidism is frequent in prostate cancer patients with bone metastases, and this condition is worsened by the administration of potent bisphosphonates.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, men only.

The prognostic role of elevated serum PTH levels at baseline and after 3 months of zoledronic acid administration was assessed prospectively in 643 bone metastatic prostate cancer patients enrolled in a prospective randomized, placebo-controlled study.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84), so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

Some participants received a placebo instead of Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84), giving a reference point.

The methods mention a period of 3 months.

What Was Measured

Secondary hyperparathyroidism is frequent in prostate cancer patients with bone metastases, and this condition is worsened by the administration of potent bisphosphonates.

The subject headings attached to it are Bone Density Conservation Agents, Bone Neoplasms, Diphosphonates, Disease Progression, Hyperparathyroidism, Secondary, Imidazoles and Multivariate Analysis.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84) over 3 months.

Results are reported in around 5 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2012 (The oncologist), a journal based in England.

More context: the Parathyroid Hormone (PTH 1-84) compound page, all human trials.