Renal safety of 1-hour pamidronate infusion for breast cancer and multiple myeloma patients: comparison between clinical trials and population-based database

What is it about?

Product monograph of pamidronate and ASCO guidelines recommend that pamidronate be infused over 2 hours to avoid renal deterioration. We found that the prevalence of renal deterioration with 1-hour pamidronate infusions from a population database was not significantly different to 2-hour pamidronate infusions in clinical trials.

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Why is it important?

Our findings confirmed the safety of 1-hour infusion previously found by Vilimovskij et al. in randomized controlled trial funded by the manufacturer of pamidronate (ASCO 1999 abstract 2223). The shorter infusion time is associated with significantly less resources required (chair time, staffing) and makes pamidronate competitive with zoledronic acid, a more costly alternative made by the same manufacturer.