Study suggests osteoporosis drug may have a protective effect against breast cancer

A DRUG for osteoporosis may also have a protective effect against breast cancer, a new study has suggested.

Meanwhile a separate study found that statins may help prevent tumours arising in the opposite breast among women who have already suffered from the disease.

Denosumab is a drug used to treat osteoporosis – a condition which weakens the bones making them more fragile and likely to break.

Researchers from Canada set out to examine use of the drug and breast cancer risk among post menopausal women.

Using health databases from Ontario in Canada, they examined more than 100,000 women, of whom 25,000 used the medication.

During the follow-up period, 1,271 cases of breast cancer were identified, including 285 cases among women who used denosumab.

They found that those who used denosumab had a 13% decreased risk of breast cancer.

Writing in the British Journal of Cancer, the authors wrote: “After five years of follow-up, the cumulative incidence of breast cancer was significantly lower in the denosumab users vs. the non-users.

“We observed that use of denosumab was associated with a modestly significant 13% decreased risk of subsequent breast cancer.”

Meanwhile, another study published in the same journal examined statin use and the development of contralateral breast cancer – tumours arising in the opposite breast among women with a prior breast cancer.

Statins are traditionally used to lower cholesterol but the team of researchers from Denmark set out to assess additional health benefits of the drugs.

Using Danish registers, researchers identified more than 50,000 women who had suffered non-metastatic breast cancer between 1996 and 2012.

More than 5,000 women were statin users.

They found that statin use was linked to a 12% lower risk of developing contralateral breast cancer, with an even stronger association found among women who had used statins for five years or more.

Statin use was also found to be more effective with among women diagnosed with a breast cancer sub-type that cannot be treated with endocrine therapy.