Bouvard B, et al. - The influence of bone mineral density, fractures, bisphosphonate, or vitamin D prescription on 10 years of breast cancer outcome was investigated in a longitudinal and prospective cohort of 450 postmenopausal women with local estrogen receptor (ER)+ breast cancer. Outcomes revealed the benefits of osteoporosis treatment, including vitamin D and bisphosphonates, in women treated with aromatase inhibitors for ER+ breast cancer by reducing relapse and death by 50%.

Methods

• Using Cox model, they analyzed every patient for tumor characteristics, bone status at the beginning of aromatase inhibitor treatment and 10 years' cancer outcome.

Results

• Follow-up of the patients was performed for a mean period of 10.3 ± 3.0 years.
• Death was reported in 79 patients, and relapse was reported in 75 patients; 30.7% had a history of fracture, 16.9% had a T-score ≤ −2.5 and 11.3% had vitamin D deficiency.
• For a mean duration of 5 ± 1.7 years, 35.3% women received bisphosphonates for osteoporosis.
• Relapse had a significant association with tumor size (hazard ratio [HR]=1.32, P ≤ 0.01) and number of lymph nodes involved (HR=1.07, P=0.03).
• A decreased risk of relapse was noted in significant association with bisphosphonate treatment (HR=0.51, P=0.03).
• Researchers observed an increased risk of death in significant correlation with age at cancer diagnosis (HR=1.07, P ≤ 0.01) and vitamin D deficiency (HR=1.85, P=0.04), while bisphosphonate treatment was noted to be associated with a reduced risk of death (HR = 0.46, P=0.01).