Breast Cancer Survivors - Watch Your Hips

It is very important to watch your bone health as a cancer survior. This is something that my mother a 17 year survior of breast cancer is dealing with right know. So I am sharing her story because this is something is very importamnt for cancer surviors. And since my mother is going through all these tests I am understanding this more and more. At the last test, my mother had the doctors found a bone fracture. My mother is currently recoverying and doing well. This is very serious. My mother has to be very careful not to fracture her bones. Here is a report from www.Breast Cancer.com.


Breast cancer survivors who have had chemotherapy should watch out for their bone health. Researchers at Northwestern Medicine found that women in early menopause - brought on by chemo treatments for breast cancer - were more likely to develop osteopenia in middle age. Hip fractures are usually thought of as the bane of elderly women. Dr Beatrice Edwards noticed that women in their early 50s were coming in for hip fracture treatment. Dr. Edwards got curious about this and collected data on her patient's breast cancer treatment. The women had early-stage breast cancer and underwent lumpectomy, radiation, chemo, and aromatase inhibitor therapy.

Usually a bone mineral density scan would reveal osteopenia and osteoporosis in elderly patients. Dr. Edwards found that her patients who needed help for hip fractures were much younger than the average age at which bone density scans are given. Osteopenia (bone thinning) may be occurring in response to cytoxan and adriamycin - standard chemo drugs given for breast cancer, and aromatase inhibitors - drugs given to lower estrogen and prevent recurrence.

A clinical trial has yet to be done that would conclusively show the effect of chemo and aromatase inhibitors on bone density. Dr. Edwards hopes that such a trial will be designed and conducted. She also thinks that it may be wise for premenopausal women to have a baseline bone density scan before starting chemotherapy, with follow-up scans after primary treatment has been completed.

"Although the majority of women with breast cancer can expect to be fully cured from the disease, the prevention of cancer treatment-induced bone loss is important to consider in cancer survival," commented Dr. Edwards. "More research needs to be done before treatment guidelines are changed, but greater awareness of the adverse effects of certain breast cancer drugs is needed."

All information is from: www.breastcancer.about.com

Kayla Wharton - Mrs. North Texas International