[Prevention and treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis in women treated for cancer]

Abstract

Among 50-year-old women, about 30%, will suffer from osteoporosis resulting in vertebral compression, pain, and possible disablement; this represents a cost of over 4 billion French franco, and therefore necessitates a prevention policy. It has been established that estrogens applied in a dose-dependent manner have a preventive action against bone loss during the treatment period. The action of nor-steroid progestatives and anti-estrogens is likely, although this has not been fully demonstrated. Estrogens, when administered alone, increase the risk of endometrial cancer; however, this risk seems to be reduced by the addition of progestatives over a minimal period of time. Regarding breast cancer, it seems that substitutional hormone treatments for menopause only increase the risk of the above cancer after a prolonged period of over 10 years. The role of progestatives in breast-cancer risk remains uncertain, and is a subject of controversy. It therefore seems justified to prescribe substitutional hormone treatments combining estrogens and progestatives for young women in whom treatment for non hormone-dependent cancers of the cervix, ovary, etc has resulted in castration. For women who have been treated for breast or endometrial cancer, we are of the opinion that the treatment of choice should consist of non-hormonal treatments for prevention of osteoporosis.