Zoledronic acid (Zometa, ZOL) and cytotoxic chemotherapy agents have been reported to have synergistic antitumor activities. However, there is limited data on the effects of combination therapies on the development of bone metastasis in animal models of lung cancer. The purpose of this study was to establish a human lung adenocarcinoma cell line with high bone metastatic potential in an immunodeficient mouse model and to evaluate the synergistic inhibitory activity of zoledronate and paclitaxel (P) on bone metastasis in nude mice. A human lung adenocarcinoma cell line with high bone metastatic potential (SPC-A1-BM) was established by 10 rounds of in vivo selection. Cells were inoculated into the cardiac ventricle of NIH-BNX mice, which were treated 8 days later with: ZOL (0.2 mg/kg s.c. twice weekly) alone, P (6.0 mg/kg every week, i.p.) alone, P + ZOL, or vehicle (10 mice per group). Tumor growth was evaluated with bone scans, X-rays and in situ immunohistochemistry. Serum n-telopeptide of type I collagen (NTX) was measured by ELISA. Survival was assessed using the Kaplan-Meier method. Bone scan, radiographic and histological assessments revealed fewer bone metastases in all treatment groups vs. vehicle, with P + ZOL significantly reducing the incidence of bone metastases detected by bone scans (P=0.020) and X-rays (P=0.036). A histological analysis revealed marginal differences in the number of bone metastases between P + ZOL and vehicle (P=0.058). There was a trend towards differences in survival between the groups (P=0.1511) and survival was significantly longer for the P + ZOL group vs. vehicle (P=0.022). Compared with vehicle and ZOL alone, cancerous cells in the bone of mice treated with P + ZOL expressed higher levels of Bax and lower levels of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xl. ZOL produced a trend towards reduced NTX levels vs. vehicle and P + ZOL produced a profound reduction in NTX vs. vehicle (P=0.022). The results of this study indicated that zoledronate enhanced the efficacy of paclitaxel synergistically, by reducing the incidence of bone metastasis from lung cancer and prolonging survival in a mouse model of non-small cell lung cancer with a high potential for metastasis to bone.

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