There are an estimatedTrusted Source 18.1 million cancer survivors currently in the United States. Due to the country’s growing and aging population, there may be 26.1 million survivors by 2024. Of these, 73% will be older than 65.
For the elderly, however, completing cancer treatment may not mean the end of related medical challenges. Frailty-related bone injuries, for example, are common among survivors. A new cohort-based study from the American Cancer Society—involving 92,431 older adults whose average age was 69.4 years—investigates how often such injuries may occur.
The new study has found that older cancer survivors are more likely to experience a bone fracture for several years after diagnosis than people who have not had cancer, particularly this risk is 57% higher within the first year of diagnosis.
Older cancer survivors who were diagnosed with advanced-stage cancer 1 to 5 years earlier also had a 112% higher risk of fracture than participants without a history of cancer. “This is one of the first studies to investigate the associations among cancer diagnoses, including time since diagnosis and stage at diagnosis, health behaviors, and treatment with the risk of bone fractures,” Dr. Erika Rees-PuniaTrusted Source told Medical News Today. Dr. Rees-Punia is the senior principal scientist of epidemiology and behavioral research at the American Cancer Society, and the study’s lead investigator.
The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) OncologyTrusted Source.
Which bones are more at risk?
“Prior studies on cancer and bone fractures largely focus on breast cancer survivors. We were able to include survivors of several cancer types in our study,” said Dr. Rees-Punia.
“Prior studies generally focus on one fracture site (largely hip) or combine all bone fracture sites together. We were able to examine the risk of fracture by site for pelvic, vertebral, and wrist fractures,” she pointed out.
The researchers also found the increased likelihood of injury was greatest for vertebral and pelvic fractures, as opposed to radial fractures. Dr. Anna L. Schwartz, author and researcher specializing in the beneficial effects of exercise for cancer survivors, who was not involved in the study, pointed out to MNT:
“The finding that older adult cancer survivors are at increased risk of fracture for a prolonged time after treatment ends speaks to the critical need for exercise oncology rehabilitation to restore balance and strength to reduce the risk of falls.”
