In this research computed tomography was used to describe,
through Hounsfield Units,
the osseous profile of Mexican female patients with breast cancer.
Their osseous profile was related with the result obtained from the X-Ray Dual Absorptiometry study,
which is considered the golden standard for the diagnosis of mineral osseous density. The average age of our patients to the moment of the breast cancer diagnosis resulted similar to those reported by other Mexican authors like Sanchez,
Parada-Huerta,
Hernández,
and Bandala.
With respect to the familiar antecedent for breast cancer,
this study’s results were different to those reported by Cárdenas-Rodríguez and Lara Medina given that our research showed a relatively high percentage of patients with a familiar antecedent for breast cancer; this is possibly due to the socioeconomic status of our population.
Bandala found a higher percentage of overweight and obesity in patients with breast cancer (27.9%) than the one found in our study.
The reason of this contrast might be the fact that this research was carried out within the private health sector,
which implicates a difference in dietary habits.
A research by Lara Medina shows that more than half of the patients were in clinical stages III to IV,
which is a remarkably different result to the one we obtained (with a difference of 33.5%).
Our study demonstrates that the minority of our patients found themselves within these advanced stages.
This contrast might be due to the fact that in the public health sector patients attend medical consultations in broader time intervals,
which inhibits them from obtaining a quality preventive medicine treatment.
This does not occur within the private health sector,
where preventive medicine is encouraged.
With respect to the triple negative result,
our population showed 34% more than the reported by other studies (Lara Medina).
One of the reasons for which this difference exists might be that our patients have Jewish or Anglo-Saxon ancestry.
It is known that breast cancer and osteoporosis share some of the risk factors and biochemical processes for developing these two entities.
This is reflected in the results obtained in our research,
given that more than half the patients in the moment of diagnosis presented alterations in the mineral osseous density.
The prevalence of osteoporosis found in our investigation is similar to that described in other studies of vertebral osteoporosis in Europe.
In our population it represents only 1.8% lower than the European result.
According to the XDA values found in our research,
patients who had osteoporosis were mainly women going through menopause.
Patients located in stage III-IV had the highest percentage of osteoporosis (36.4%).
Regarding the results obtained through CT,
patients going through the pre-menopause phase with a normal XDA presented 65.43 HU.
This result is lower than the one obtained from patients going through menopause with normal XDA.
When comparing the results from patients in stages III-IV,
but with a normal XDA,
these were higher (86.4 higher) than the obtained from patients whose XDA was abnormal but with early clinical stages (I-II-III).
This might be caused by the presence of metastatic injuries and by the biochemical processes of the andrenergic beta receptor activation.
Through CT we were able to obtain the cut for osteoporosis/osteopenia equal or greater than 157 HU,
with a sensibility of 82%.
This is very similar to the results obtained by Perry J.
Pickhardt in 2013 (22),
which described a sensibility of 90% for a cut level of 160 HU,
in spite of the fact that this study takes into account a North American population of both sexes.
There are other studies in which XDA is related to CT: N.
Batawil’s results show a cut level of 203 HU to exclude osteopenia/osteoporosis.
This great difference might be due the fact that said research was carried out in Saudi Arabia,
with a group of women with divers previous diagnosis and only some of them with breast cancer. In another study similar to ours,
in which HU is compared with the result obtained from XDA (Johnson 2016),
the results obtained from the wrist joint were compared to those obtained from the lumbar column.
These results were very different to ours (307 HU,
sensibility of 86% and specificity of 94%).
This is highly questionable for us,
given that the XDA does not take into account joints of superior members for the diagnosis,
and to compare one diagnostic method distinct to the golden standard must be done with certain specifications and similarities to be able to do a real comparison.
This research is the first one to be carried out with Mexican women with breast cancer,
and in which two different techniques to measure mineral osseous density are used,
with the purpose of preventing traumatic comorbidities.