Bone Health In Focus: A Report About Breast Cancer's Impact on Bones

Bone is a common site for metastases in patients with breast cancer. Sixty five to 75 percent of patients with advanced breast cancer can eventually develop bone metastases throughout the course of their disease.²¹ In this process, cancer cells travel from the primary tumor to bone tissue, where they settle and grow. The growing cancer cells weaken and destroy the bone around the tumor and can result in a number of serious complications called skeletal-related events (SREs), which are associated with increased pain, illness and death.^1,22,23

Bone pain is one of the first signs that cancer has progressed this far,²⁴ and it affects approximately 70 percent of patients whose cancer has spread to the bone.²⁵ Bone pain can dominate the daily lives of patients with metastatic disease and can be characterized as severe.²⁶ It is important for patients to communicate any bone-related symptoms to their doctor as soon as possible so a bone scan can be performed to determine if bone metastases are present.

63635-R1-V1