Oral bisphosphonate use and lung cancer incidence among postmenopausal women

Abstract

BackgroundBisphosphonates are common medications for the treatment of osteoporosis in older populations. Several studies, including the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), have found inverse associations of bisphosphonate use with risk of breast and endometrial cancer, but little is known about its association with other common malignancies. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association of bisphosphonate use on the incidence of lung cancer in the WHI.Patients and methodsThe association between oral bisphosphonate use and lung cancer risk was examined in 151 432 postmenopausal women enrolled into the WHI in 1993–1998. At baseline and during follow-up, participants completed an inventory of regularly used medications including bisphosphonates.ResultsAfter a mean follow-up of 13.3 years, 2511 women were diagnosed with incident lung cancer. There was no evidence of a difference in lung cancer incidence between oral bisphosphonate users and never users (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.91; 95% confidence intervals, 0.80–1.04; P = 0.16). However, an inverse association was observed among those who were never smokers (hazard ratio = 0.57, 95% confidence interval, 0.39–0.84; P < 0.01).ConclusionIn this large prospective cohort of postmenopausal women, oral bisphosphonate use was associated with significantly lower lung cancer risk among never smokers, suggesting bisphosphonates may have a protective effect against lung cancer. Additional studies are needed to confirm our findings.

Current therapy of KRAS-mutant lung cancer

“…Preclinical studies indicated that lung cancer cells might be sensitive to prenylation inhibition by bisphosphonates [76,77]. Additionally, oral bisphosphonate use was associated with lower lung cancer risk among never smoker postmenopausal women in a large prospective study [78]. In isolated clinical cases, bisphosphonate therapy caused the regression of the primary lesion and its hepatic metastases in LADC [79].…”

Bisphosphonates and risk of lung cancer

“…222 duplications and 2608 studies were excluded by screening the title and abstract. Finally, 4 studies [ 9 – 12 ] were included in our analysis (Fig. 1 ).…”

“…The characteristics of including literature were listed in Table 1 . In Tao et al [ 9 ] and Chiang et al [ 11 ] only contained female patients. However, the patients in the study of Cardwell et al [ 12 ] and Lee et al [ 10 ] were man and woman.…”

“…However, the patients in the study of Cardwell et al [ 12 ] and Lee et al [ 10 ] were man and woman. Three studies [ 9 – 11 ] provided the risk of lung cancer on alendronate. All included studies were cohort studies and provided adjusted RR/ OR/HR and 95%CI.…”

“…Recently, the study Tao et al [ 9 ] indicated that the risk of lung cancer could be decreased in postmenopausal women who use the bisphosphonates (BPs) and never smoke(odds ratio [OR] 0.57, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.39–0.84). However, other studies [ 10 – 12 ] showed that there was no significant association between BPs and lung cancer.…”