Evaluation of baseline fracture risk in younger postmenopausal women with breast cancer using different risk assessment methods

Objective Controversy exists about the impact of bone mineral density (BMD) and fracture risk in newly diagnosed patients with breast cancer (BC). It is presumed that there are differences in BMD between women with BC and healthy controls. BMD is therefore considered as a potential marker to predict BC risk. This study was conducted to investigate the association of BMD, trabecular bone score (TBS) and fracture risk in younger postmenopausal women with hormone responsive BC. Methods Overall, 343 women were examined. Women with BC were matched to a control group of the general population. Forty-nine women and fifty-nine controls were included in the final analysis. All subjects underwent dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) of the lumbar spine, femoral neck, and the total hip to evaluate bone mineral density. The 10-year fracture risk for a major osteoporotic fracture was assessed using the FRAX-score and the TBS-adjusted FRAX-Score, respectively. Results Lumbar and femoral neck BMD were similar in BC patients and controls. No difference was found for TBS of the spine (1.38 +/- 0.1 vs.1.36 +/- 0.09) in the BC and the control group, respectively (p = 0.19). The 10- year probability for a major osteoporotic fracture (MoF) or femoral neck (FN) fracture was 6.1 (+/- 2.6%) and 0.9 (+/- 1.2%) in the BC group vs. 6.7 (+/- 3.5%) (p = 0.33) and 0.9 (+/- 1.1%) (p = 0.73) in the control group. Conclusion Postmenopausal women younger than 60 years with breast cancer do not show any differences in baseline BMD, TBS, or TBS adjusted FRAX in comparison to controls.