Pharmalive has reported on findings from a study (published in The Oncologist) which suggests that genetic variants raise the risk of developing serious osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) in patients who take bisphosphonates.

ONJ is a serious adverse drug reaction which causes painful and hard-to-treat bone lesions, which can eventually lead to loss of the entire jaw. Among people taking bisphosphonates, this tends to occur in those with dental disease or those who undergo invasive dental procedures.

In this study, researchers performed a genome-wide analysis of 30 patients who were taking bisphosphonates and had developed ONJ and compared them with several bisphosphonate users who were disease free.

The researchers found that patients who had a small variation in the RBMS3 gene were 5.8 times more likely to develop ONJ than those without the variation. The study also identified small variations in two other genes, IGFBP7 and ABCC4, that may contribute to ONJ risk.

The researchers concluded that further investigation is required to validate their results and to determine whether the RBMS3 gene variation is seen in other racial groups. However these findings pave the way for the development of a pharmacogenetic screening test that personalises risk assessment for ONJ.