Can the treatments for cancer also put patients at risk for bone problems?
We’re finding that more and more treatments cause osteoporosis. Chemotherapy causes osteoporosis. Hormonal treatments cause osteoporosis. Aromatase inhibitors, which are treatments for breast cancer that affect hormonal levels, are very effective drugs with few side effects or complications, but they do increase the amount of osteoporosis that occurs. What is the treatment for bone complications? There are a number of treatments. Radiation therapy is effective in treating bone pain in particular areas, and surgery is used to address bone fractures. To strengthen bone and prevent a lot of complications from happening in the first place, we use bisphosphonates, which are a class of drugs that have been around for a while to treat osteoporosis. Newer more potent formulations have become very easy to use. Why are breast cancer patients more susceptible to bone complications? Currently, the gold standard treatment for hormone-dependent breast cancer is tamoxifen. And I anticipate in the nex
