I want to know if the drug arimidex can be used to help stop the bone plates to fuse to early?

Question

My 12 year old son has advanced bone age . He has the bone age of a 13 and half boy. His endo prescribed Arimidex but I don't find any information regarding that arimidex can be used for stop the bone to fuse to early. Please help me he is only 4'7.

Answer 1

I had never heard of this. I prescribe Arimidex and other aromatase inhibitors for my breast cancer patients. I just did a search and found this article that shows support for the use of Arimidex and other aromatase inhibitors to help stop the bone plates from fusing early. Sounds like your endocrinologist is very up to date on new research.

http://journals.endocrinology.org/erc/006/0303/0060303.pdf#search='aromatase%20inhibitors%20and%20bone%20plates'

Answer 2

So you want to know if the drug arimidex can be used to help stop the bone plates to fuse to early. Sure it can be as your doctor as also prescribed the same. You also mentioned that his endo prescribed Arimidex but I don't find any information regarding that arimidex can be used for stop the bone to fuse to early. When the endo has precribed, you can definitely trust this medicine and get that for your 12 year old son.

Answer 3

It looks like it is a drug primarily prescribed for breast cancer patients.

However, once a drug is okayed by the FDA for one use, a doctor may prescribe it for "off label" use.

I'm not sure if this is the case with your drug, but it is possible since it blocks a hormone (estrogen) in women. It may have effects which are normally considered "side effects", but in this case could be used as the primary reason for the drug.

For example there is a drug called Topimax which is prescribed by psychiatrists...but it is now being marketed for migrain prevention. A common "side effect" of this psych med is that people experience less migraines, the "off label" use to help *prevent* migrains became so strong that the company eventually decided to go through the extra cost and hardship of getting the FDA to approve the drug for another use.

I hope that helps.