Education For Healthy Life

There are several things that can be done to help prevent or slow the rapid bone loss that can be caused by breast cancer treatment. When such bone loss does occur, early diagnosis and treatment is essential.

Preventing/slowing bone loss. A healthy diet, regular exercise, and daily supplements of calcium and vitamin D can help prevent or slow cancer treatment-related bone loss. Diagnosing bone loss. To make sure bone loss is identified quickly, breast cancer patients should receive bone mineral density tests every 1 to 2 years.

Treating bone loss. Therapies for rapid bone loss include:
― Oral bisphosphonates such as Actonel®, Fosamax®, and Boniva®.
― Intravenous bisphosphonates (Aredia®, Reclast®, and Zometa®*).


* Zoledronic acid used to treat cancer-related bone conditions is called Zometa®. Zoledronic acid used to treat osteoporosis and Paget’s disease of bone is called Reclast® in the U.S. and Aclasta® in other countries. The doses used to treat bone metastasis are different than those given to patients with osteoporosis or Paget’s
disease.