Reply
Mon 18 Jun, 2007 11:04 am
My wife has been on the Forteo regimen (daily injections) since April 2006.
The price to us today is $657.14 per month (medicare Part D gap) so we're wondering if the results are worth the trouble and price.
Seemed that a bone density test would indicate progress (or lack thereof) so we asked her physician for his opinion. He took off like a Roman candle: "There is no way to test for the effectiveness of Forteo until after the standard two years of administering it!!" He further stated that nobody, including Eli Lilly, has been able to observe anything pro or con, mostly because bone density fluctuates so much while taking Forteo that test results are useless.
Seems to us that there should be a way to determine whether the total cost in excess of $15,000 is worth it before the end of the two years.
Any opinions, case histories or suggestions would be appreciated.
No matter what treatment one uses, I think you won't see results in bone increase until about one or two years. EVen then there may be no improvement. If there is no BMD increase but no decrease either they call that a success. Taking FORTEO is a gamble, with no guarantees. I am trying research and decide whether or not to take it myself.
There is a risk of bone cancer from this drug and I haven't read any data on how they extrapalated their findings in the rats studies over to what is safe for humans. In Lily's literature it states that they do not know what the effects are with humans and cancer. The drug has been in use for just 4 years and there's been only one case of a person getting bone cancer during the treatement. That person died. My question is what are the chances of bone cancer after the treatment is over ... maybe 5 or 10 years down the road.
In the literature they say that the drug makes an improvement 65% of the time. However, what I wonder is what is the specific BMD improvement? Is it significant enough to risk getting cancer? If my BMD goes up from -3.1 to -3.0 that might not be worth the risk. In fact that kind of increase could be just fluctuation in the machine.
It's all unclear !
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace