Osteoporosis drugs linked to esophogeal cancer risk by new UK study
September 3rd, 2010 joshua
Popular osteoporosis drugs like Boniva, Fosamax and Actonel have been linked to an increased risk of esophogeal cancer, according to a new study from the U.K.
Business Week reports, oral bisphosphonates taken over a long period of time have returned anecdotal reports of a link to esophogeal cancer.
“What we lack at present is a full picture of the benefits versus risks for long-term use of bisphosphonates, which are increasingly commonly prescribed,” lead researcher Dr. Jane Green, a clinical epidemiologist, in the Oxford University’s Cancer Epidemiology Unit, told Business Week. “Our results are a small part of this picture.”
Researchers said they’ll need to do more studies to see if there is indeed a direct link between the increasingly popular class of drugs and the uncommon cancer. All links to date have been through observational studies, and the possibility still exists that people prescribed these drugs were more likely to get cancer in another way.
The Oxford group looked at data collected in the U.K. General Practice Research Database, examining the records of 15,000 people with either esophogeal, stomach or colorectal cancer. Among those patients, people taking an osteoporosis drug for at least five years, or who have had 10 prescriptions written for them were at a doubled risk of developing esophogeal cancer.
That same methodology showed the drugs also had a link to an increased risk of stomach and bowel cancers.
