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High
Bone Denisty Linked
To Breast Cancer
Risk
NEW
YORK (Reuters Health) - While older women with naturally greater
bone mineral density are at lower risk of hip fractures, they
have nearly three times the risk of breast cancer as women with
frailer bones, new study findings suggest.
These results
add to existing evidence that suggests that older women who have
low bone mass have a decreased risk of breast cancer and conversely
that higher bone density is associated with increased risk of
breast cancer, the researchers report.
The current
study was conducted by Dr. Joseph M. Zmuda of the department of
epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and
colleagues. They report their findings in the June 20th issue
of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Bone mineral
density can be an accurate marker of the body's response to estrogen,
in that women with higher bone density are thought to be physiologically
more sensitive to the hormone's effects than women with lower
bone density. Because estrogens have also been linked to breast
cancer risk, Zmuda's team sought to determine if bone density
might help predict breast cancer risk in older women.
The researchers
performed density tests on the bones of the wrist, arm and heel
of 8,905 white women aged 65 years and older, and then followed
their incidence of breast cancer for more than 6 years. During
that period of time, 315 study participants developed breast cancer.
After adjusting
for other risk factors that contribute to breast cancer such as
age and obesity, the investigators found that the risk for women
with the highest bone density for all three skeletal sites was
2.7 times greater than that for women with the lowest measurement
of bone density for all three sites.
In addition,
the study results indicate that women who developed breast cancer
were more likely to have a more advanced stage of the disease
upon diagnosis.
``Elderly
women with high bone mineral density have an increased risk of
breast cancer, especially advanced cancer, compared with women
with low bone mineral density,'' Zmuda and colleagues report.
``These findings
suggest an association between osteoporosis and invasive breast
cancer, two of the most prevalent conditions affecting an older
woman's health,'' the authors conclude.
Bone density
may be an indicator of life-long, naturally occurring levels of
the female hormone estrogen. Estrogen is known to play a role
in breast cancer risk because women who menstruate at an early
age, have a late age of menopause, or who are childless have greater
exposure to the hormone--and an increased risk of cancer.
SOURCE:
Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2001;93:930-936.
Reference
Source 89
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