Advances in the Treatment of HYPERPARATHYROIDISM
Hyperparathyroidism
Cinacalcet is the first in a new class of drugs known as calcimimetics, now available to patients whose parathyroid glands (located behind the thyroid gland in the neck) are producing too much parathyroid hormone. Often, the cause of hyperparathyroidism is unknown, but in some cases the overactivity is caused by other conditions, such as kidney failure or parathyroid cancer. In that case, the condition is called secondary hyperparathyroidism.
Because they produce excessive parathyroid hormone, which helps the body absorb calcium from food and regulates the level of calcium in the blood, hyperparathyroidism patients have abnormally high levels of calcium in the blood (hypercalcemia). Hypercalcemia is associated with bone pain, fractures, kidney stones, and risk of cardiovascular death.54 According to the FDA, about 37,000 people in the United States have hypercalcemia as a result of parathyroid cancer.55
PHARMACEUTICAL ADVANCES
First-In-Class Treatment Counteracts Overactive Parathyroid Glands
Cinacalcet lowers the level of parathyroid hormone and calcium by increasing the sensitivity of the calcium-sensing receptor on the surface of the parathyroid gland.56 In doing so, it lowers the risk of altered metabolism of calcium and phosphorus, bone pain, fractures, and risk for cardiovascular death. With cinacalcet's 2004 approval, it became the first specific pharmaceutical therapy for hypercalcemia associated with parathyroid cancer as well as for secondary hyperparathyroidism.
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Endnotes:
54 Food and Drug Administration, "FDA Approves First in a New Class of Drugs to Treat Hyperparathyroidism Associated with Renal Failure and in Patients with Parathyroid Cancer," 8 March 2004, http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/2004/ANS01282.html (accessed 29 July 2005).
55 Food and Drug Administration, Office of Orphan Products Development (OOPD), Approved Orphan Drug Spreadsheet, available upon request from OOPD.
56 S. Reents et al., Clinical Pharmacology, Gold Standard Multi-media, Inc., Cinacalcet, http://cp.gsm.com (accessed 3 August 2005).
