Bone Drugs May Raise Risk Of Esophageal Cancer

Common drugs used to treat women diagnosed with osteoporosis may raise their risk of developing throat cancer.

As women age and go through menopause, their bones become weaker than they were when they were younger, making them susceptible to breaks and or fractures.

Osteoporosis drugs work to keep the bones strong but in new research they have been shown to possibly raise risk of esophageal cancer.

Researchers analyzed a data base of more than 80,000 patients for their study, following them for up to 8 years and comparing rates of cancer diagnosis with those women taking bone strengthening drugs.

They noted that those women taking a drug to keep their bones strong were at a slightly increased risk of cancer.

“Esophageal cancer is an uncommon cancer,” said Jane Green, a clinical epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, one of the paper’s authors. “Even a doubled risk is still a very small risk.”

• Share
• Tweet
• "&title=""">