(Robby Berman/ Medical News Today) — There are an estimated 18.1 million cancer survivors currently in the United States. Due to the country’s growing and aging population, there may be 26.1 million survivors by 2024. Of these, 73% will be older than 65.
For the elderly, however, completing cancer treatment may not mean the end of related medical challenges. Frailty-related bone injuries, for example, are common among survivors. A new cohort-based study from the American Cancer Society—involving 92,431 older adults whose average age was 69.4 years—investigates how often such injuries may occur.
The new study has found that older cancer survivors are more likely to experience a bone fracture for several years after diagnosis than people who have not had cancer, particularly this risk is 57% higher within the first year of diagnosis.
Older cancer survivors who were diagnosed with advanced-stage cancer 1 to 5 years earlier also had a 112% higher risk of fracture than participants without a history of cancer. (…)