10/05/2022
It was around this time two years ago when Katie Finley was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a bilateral mastectomy. Before the surgery, doctors told her they didn’t think it was serious, and that they didn’t think she’d need chemotherapy or radiation.
However, during the surgery, Finley’s healthcare team removed a few of her lymph nodes (the first place breast cancer typically spreads) and found more cancerous cells than expected. A follow-up scan confirmed the worst: The breast cancer had metastasized, or spread, to her bones. “I had numerous lesions on my sacrum, hip and a certain number of vertebrae,” Finley said. “Looking back, I don’t think I had any symptoms that the breast cancer had spread — no pain or weakness — but I could have brushed it off as just getting older.”
For many women with breast cancer, attention to bone health is important for a variety of reasons. Maintaining healthy bone density can be difficult for women with breast cancer — including survivors — who take certain medications that can sp*ed up and increase bone loss. For example, women with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer are typically on hormone suppression therapy, meaning their bodies are producing little to no estrogen. Without estrogen, which is the hormone that protects bones from damage, bones become thin and weak. This can lead to osteoporosis and an increased risk for fracture, broken bones and bone pain.
Women with breast cancer cells that have spread to the bone, also known as stage 4 breast cancer, may have lesions that can cause bones to fracture and break easily. In some cases, cancer growing in the bones can press on the spinal cord, which can lead to a loss of mobility and even paralysis. In fact, research shows that 70% of women with bone metastasis will suffer a skeleton-related event (broken bones, spinal cord compression, chronic pain) within two years of diagnosis
