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Getting the latest healthcare news for you
Getting the latest healthcare news for you
Bisphosphonates — drugs commonly used to treat bone loss — may do double duty for some breast cancer patients. A new study found that women with hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer who took bisphosphonates for at least a year after diagnosis had significantly lower odds of dying. But for triple-negative breast cancer patients, prior use of these drugs was tied to sharply higher risks of recurrence and death.
Bisphosphonates — drugs typically prescribed for osteoporosis — appear to offer a meaningful survival benefit for women with hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer, according to a new population-based cohort study published in Cancer. Researchers analyzed data from nearly 3,700 women diagnosed with primary invasive breast cancer and found that those with HR+ disease who used bisphosphonates for at least 12 months after diagnosis had significantly lower risks of dying overall and from breast cancer specifically.
The picture looked very different for women with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Pre-diagnostic bisphosphonate use in this group was associated with dramatically elevated risks of recurrence and breast cancer-specific death — a finding that warrants caution and further investigation.
By the Numbers
Why it matters: These findings reinforce bisphosphonates as a potentially valuable adjunct therapy for HR+ breast cancer, while raising an important caution flag for their use in TNBC patients — a distinction that could meaningfully shape treatment planning.
