[Gerri]

Hi Robin,

Since I just started on Zometa last August, I was struck by your post on another thread:

"I'm NOT doing Zometa, nor would I ever do Zometa, unless I had bone mets . You see Zometa has a ten percent chance of causing osteonecrosis of the jaw(Jaw bone rotting and death), which is resistant to treatment."

Where did you get that number? I did a brief search of the internet and couldn't come up with anything more recent than 2006, but found nothing with statistics. I'm sure if I spent more time I would be able to find something but I was hoping you could provide a link to your stats. I did find this on the ADA website http://www.ada.org/prof/resources/to...eonecrosis.asp

My reasons for Zometa: I was on Tamoxifen for two years and finally went into menopause. Now that I could finally switch to an AI, I asked to be put on Femara. My onc did not do a bone density test until I requested it after the first three months on Femara (she felt I was "covered" because Tamoxifen builds bones). The results were that I had osteopenia of the lumbar spine. I had read research about the benefits of Femara and Zometa and asked to start on Zometa. I had my first (and so far only ) dose in August. I am scheduled for another in Feb(sorry don't know the dosage).

I hope that this is a topic that will be discussed in San Antonio this December. For now I am going to sit back and wait to see what current reseach shows. I plan on having dose number two unless something definitive comes out to show me that the risks outweigh the benefits.

Thanks for starting this thread. I am sure it will generate a lot of interest.