Osteoporosis: Bisphosphonates also protect against uterine cancer
Larissa Melville completed her traineeship in the editorial team of . After studying biology at Ludwig Maximilians University and the Technical University of Munich, she first got to know digital media online at Focus and then decided to learn medical journalism from scratch.
More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.MunichOsteoporosis is one of the widespread diseases today. So-called bisphosphonates are particularly effective against bone loss. Now researchers have found: The drugs not only build new bone substance, but also seem to protect against cancer.
More and more people in industrialized countries suffer from osteoporosis. A common form of therapy for advanced bone loss is treatment with so-called bisphosphonates, which, among other things, inhibit the activity of bone-degrading cells and thus prevent bone loss.
Reduced risk of fractures and cancer
Now American scientists have discovered a positive side effect of these drugs: women who take bisphosphonates seem to have a significantly lower risk of developing uterine cancer.
For their investigation, Sharon Hensley Alford's team analyzed the statements of more than 29,000 women. As part of a screening study by the National Cancer Institute's Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO), they answered a questionnaire five years after the start of the study. One of the questions was about the use of medication for the bones.
In particular, the scientists investigated the connection between the consumption of nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates (NBPs) and the incidence of uterine cancer, which was later diagnosed in 77 test subjects: the participants who had taken NBPs were only half as likely to develop this type of cancer as women who did not such drugs had been treated.
How long the test subjects had been treated with bisphosphonates was not determined. Scientists also do not yet know exactly how NBPs protect against uterine cancer. However, the results of this analysis indicated that the use of NBPs can protect against uterine cancer, the researchers said. To confirm these findings, further studies with more participants and a better study design are now necessary.
Older women particularly affected
A typical characteristic of osteoporosis is low bone density. As the disease progresses, the risk of fractures increases, especially in the spine area. In addition to exercise and physiotherapy and a special nutrition plan, the patients then receive medication to build up bone substance such as bisphosphonates.
In women, bone loss is often due to the lack of estrogen after menopause (postmenopausal osteoporosis). In most cases, uterine cancer is also diagnosed in the postmenopausal phase.
Source: Alford S.H. et al .: Protective effect of bisphosphonates on endometrial cancer incidence in data from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) cancer screening trial; Cancer doi.org/10.1002/cncr.28952
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