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Bone Abstracts (2016) 5 P129 | DOI: 10.1530/boneabs.5.P129

1Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA; 2Cancer Institute and Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China; 3Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing, China; 4UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.


Background: Women with breast cancer (BC) are at high risk for fracture due to the deleterious impact of BC therapies on bone. In China, BC survival is improving as screening and treatment programs expand, however no guidelines exist to prevent BC treatment-induced bone loss. We sought to evaluate the scope of this problem among BC survivors receiving care at a large cancer referral hospital in China.

Methods: Women were invited to participate in this cross-sectional study from 4/2013 to 8/2014. Eligibility criteria included age 50–70 years and initiation of treatment for BC at least 5 years prior to enrolment. Women with bone metastases, or a history of metabolic bone disease prior to BC diagnosis were excluded. Study procedures included a questionnaire regarding risk factors for and personal history of fracture and a thoracolumbar X-ray.

Results: Two hundred women were enrolled with a mean age of 57±5 years and BMI of 24.8±3.7 kg/m2. Mean years since BC diagnosis was 6.3±1.9. The majority of cases were stage I or II at diagnosis (85.3%) and estrogen and/or progesterone receptor positive (84.6%). In total, 22 vertebral fractures (VFs) were identified. 11% reported a parental history of fracture, 10.5% reported a personal history of fracture, and 15.7% reported falling within the past year. 51% of all participants reported taking calcium supplements, but only 6.1% reported taking vitamin D supplements. Only 27% of women reported having a bone density scan since being diagnosed with BC. Compared with data from an age- and BMI-matched cohort of healthy women from the same city, the odds ratio for vertebral fracture was 3.41 (95%CI 1.42–8.17, P=0.006).

Conclusions: Vertebral fracture risk was high among our cohort of BC survivors. Chinese women undergoing BC therapy should be routinely evaluated for osteoporotic fracture risk. Larger studies are necessary to inform screening and prevention guidelines.

Volume 5

43rd Annual European Calcified Tissue Society Congress

Rome, Italy
14 May 2016 - 17 May 2016

European Calcified Tissue Society 

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