New ceramic materials with the ability to set like cement, after mixing a powder phase made of one and/or several of these new reactants and a liquid phase, have been obtained within the ternary system "CaO-P2O5-FeO". These new reactants have magnetic properties, i.e. cement made from them maintains its magnetic property during the whole setting and hardening. These new materials can be of use, for example, in dental applications, in the treatment of certain types of bone cancer and, in general, in the fields of Biomaterials and Bone Tissue Engineering. In this article, we report on the effect of iron-modified a-tricalcium phosphate, which is the main reactant of commercial calcium phosphate bone cements, on their new setting and hardening properties. (c) 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.