Breast cancer treatments
Understand how some treatments for breast cancer can make your bones weaker and more likely to break.
How do breast cancer treatments affect bone health?
About 8 out of every 10 breast cancers are oestrogen-receptor positive. This means the cancer cells use the hormone oestrogen to grow and multiply. Treatment for this type of breast cancer includes hormone therapy. Hormone therapy works by lowering oestrogen levels or blocking its effect on the cancer.
Aromatase inhibitors are one type of hormone therapy used in this kind of breast cancer. Aromatase inhibitors include medicines such as anastrozole, letrozole and exemestane. Because they reduce the amount of oestrogen made in the body, they can reduce bone density. This makes your bones weaker and more likely to break.
Tamoxifen is another type of hormone therapy. It blocks the effect of oestrogen on breast cancer cells. It may slightly increase the chance of osteoporosis in women who have not been through the menopause. But in women who have been through the menopause, tamoxifen slows bone loss and can lower the chance of osteoporosis.
If you are taking hormone therapy for breast cancer, your team may suggest a bone density or DEXA scan. Depending on the result, they may offer you treatment to lower your chance of breaking a bone.
Find out more about breast cancer and its treatment on the Breast Cancer Now website. They also have a webpage on breast cancer and osteoporosis.
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