A study released on Wednesday reveals that patients who have undergone esophageal cancer surgery face an increased risk of fractures starting one year after treatment.
The research, published in the European Journal of Surgical Oncology (Impact Factor: 2.9), was conducted by a team including Drs. Dong-wook Shin and Sung-hye Kim from Samsung Medical Center’s Family Medicine Department, Dr. Jong-ho Cho from the Thoracic and Esophageal Surgery Department, and Dr. Kyung-do Han from Soongsil University’s Department of Information Statistics and Actuarial Science.
The team analyzed data from 4,847 esophageal cancer surgery patients and 14,541 individuals without a cancer history between 2009 and 2022. Their findings showed that esophageal cancer patients had a 46% higher risk of fractures.
Strikingly, the fracture risk spiked by 61% for patients one year after surgery.
The researchers attributed this elevated risk to several factors, including chronic inflammation from cancer, post-surgical bone density decrease, anemia, deteriorating nutritional status, and reduced physical activity.
Dr. Kim emphasized the significance of this study, noting it’s the first to demonstrate fracture risks in esophageal cancer survivors based on treatment history and time since surgery. It stressed the importance of ongoing management and proactive treatment to prevent fractures in these patients.
Dr. Shin added that cancer treatment must evolve beyond focusing solely on survival to encompass both survival and quality of life. It suggested that these findings could play a crucial role in developing personalized fracture prevention and management strategies in the future.