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Adjuvant Bisphosphonate Therapy in Postmenopausal Breast Cancer

  • Breast Cancer (ML Telli, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Opinion statement

Bone health and breast cancer are two connected subjects, because breast cancer patients have a higher prevalence of osteopenia/osteoporosis and reduced bone health parameters than healthy woman of the same age. Therefore, the positive effect of adjuvant bisphosphonate therapy plays an important role in breast cancer treatment. Several randomized trials have studied bisphosphonates in the adjuvant setting in postmenopausal woman and demonstrated their potential to prevent treatment-induced bone loss. The prevention of fractures and the subsequent preservation of patients’ quality of life are important arguments for the use of adjuvant bisphosphonates in postmenopausal breast cancer patients. In addition, trials of adjuvant bone-targeted agents showed a reduction of recurrences in and outside bone and an improved outcome in patients treated with bisphosphonates.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Medical University of Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, A-1090, Wien, Austria

    Stephanie Strobl MD, Kerstin Wimmer MD, Ruth Exner MD, Yelena Devyatko MD, Michael Bolliger MD, Florian Fitzal MD & Michael Gnant MD, FACS

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Correspondence to Michael Gnant MD, FACS.

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Stephanie Strobl declares that she has no conflict of interest. Kerstin Wimmer has received a congress fee from Pfizer. Ruth Exner declares that she has no conflict of interest. Yelena Devyatko declares that she has no conflict of interest. Michael Bolliger declares that he has no conflict of interest. Florian Fitzal has received financial support for meetings from Novartis, Roche, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca, and has received honoraria from Roche and Pfizer. Michael Gnant has received research support through grants from AstraZeneca, Roche, Novartis, and Pfizer; and has received compensation from AstraZeneca, Roche, Novartis, Pfizer, Accelsiors, Amgen, Celgene, and OBI Pharma for service as a consultant.

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Strobl, S., Wimmer, K., Exner, R. et al. Adjuvant Bisphosphonate Therapy in Postmenopausal Breast Cancer. Curr. Treat. Options in Oncol. 19, 18 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11864-018-0535-z

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