Association between tumor characteristics and bone mineral density in postmenopausal breast cancer patients

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of bone mineral density (BMD) at the time of diagnosis with clinical-pathologic findings in patients with operable postmenopausal breast cancer. One hundred and fifty-eight postmenopausal women who had a baseline lumbar and hip BMD measurement were included in the analysis. Patients were divided into two groups based on the median BMD. p ≤ 0.002 was considered to be statistically significant. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) use longer than 5 years was associated with increased lumbar BMD compared with patients who used HRT less than 5 years (p = 0.002). Patients with higher BMD tended to have low grade disease, no lympho-vascular invasion, progesterone receptor-positive tumors, and low Ki-67 levels (p < 0.05). Higher baseline BMD in postmenopausal patients with breast cancer is associated with favorable prognostic features.