Disambiguating the bisphosphonates.

The bisphosphonates comprise a class of therapeutic agents that inhibit bone resorption and are frequently used in medicine in the treatment of among others osteoporosis, skeletal metastases from solid tumours, hypercalcaemia of malignancy, multiple myeloma and Paget’s disease [1]. First synthesised in 1865 in Germany, their use had been primarily industrial as these molecules proved to be powerful inhibitors of corrosion, served as complexing agents in various industries, were added to washing powders to prevent scaling and reduced tartar formation when incorporated in toothpastes [2, 3]. The inhibitory effects of bisphosphonates on the dissolution of hydroxyapatite in vitro and bone resorption in vivo were first described by Herbert Fleisch and was quickly followed by the first clinical application of bisphosphonates in humans, when in 1969 the treatment of myositis ossificans with etidronate was described [4–6].