© Nevit Dilmen
Femoral fracture
Preexisting osteoporosis is an important risk factor for mortality in postmenopausal women who develop multiple myeloma (MM), according to researchers.
They found that high fracture risk was associated with an increased risk of death in postmenopausal females with MM, independent of other clinical risk factors.
Ashley E. Rosko, MD, of Ohio State University in Columbus, and her colleagues reported these findings in Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma and Leukemia.
The researchers studied 362 subjects in the Women’s Health Initiative data set who developed MM but had no history of any cancer at baseline. The women were between 50 and 79 years of age and postmenopausal when they were originally recruited at 40 US centers between 1993 and 1998.
Dr. Rosko and her colleagues calculated bone health for the women using the Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX), a web-based tool that calculates 10-year probability of hip and other major osteoporotic fractures.
Ninety-eight of the subjects were classified as having high FRAX scores, defined as a 10-year probability of 3% or greater for hip fracture or 20% or greater for other major osteoporosis-related fractures.
With a median follow-up of 10.5 years, the adjusted risk of death was elevated in women with high FRAX scores, with a covariate-adjusted hazard ratio of 1.51 (95% confidence interval, 1.01-2.25; P=0.044) versus women with low FRAX scores.
Of the 362 patients, 226 died during the follow-up period. That included 72% (n=71) of women with high FRAX scores and 59% (n=155) of women with low FRAX scores.
These findings suggest osteoporosis is an “important comorbidity” in women who develop MM, according to Dr. Rosko and her coauthors.
“Recognizing osteoporosis as a risk factor associated with multiple myeloma mortality is an important prognostic factor in postmenopausal women,” the researchers wrote.
This work was supported, in part, by the National Cancer Institute. The researchers reported no relevant financial disclosures.