The clinical use of bisphosphonates has increased dramatically during the past five years. The most common indication for these compounds is osteoporosis, but their use in osteolytic bone disease has grown very rapidly. The Food and Drug Administration's approval of pamidronate in 1995 for the treatment of normocalcemic patients with myeloma bone disease and in 1996 for those with osteolytic lesions of metastatic breast cancer was followed by widespread use of pamidronate in patients with tumors that involve bone. Recent clinical studies indicate that pamidronate reduces the frequency of skeletal events in patients with myeloma or breast cancer by approximately . . .