This prevents broken bones, bone pain and hypercalcemia, a condition in which calcium from destroyed bone leaks into the blood causing symptoms such as sleepiness, vomiting, and renal failure.

Perhaps even more promising, several cancer researchers also discovered in the 1990s that bisphosphonate treatments were also useful in preventing the spread of cancer metastases, causing metastatic tumors to shrink and perhaps even preventing bone metastases from occurring at all in breast cancer patients.

For many patients, bisphosphonates can reduce the need for radiotherapy and surgery, reduce pain, reduce or delay the onset of broken bones and improve quality of life.