If you are an avid follower of health related news, you may have recently read that a new study suggests that use of anti-osteoporosis drugs, known as bisphosphonates, may drastically increase the risk of esophageal cancer, which kills about 15,000 people in the United States each year.

The study was conducted by Dr. Jane Green and colleagues from the University of Oxford’s Cancer Epidemiology Unit and is currently published in the Sept 2010 issue of British Medical Journal.

The researchers found use of oral bisphosphonates was associated with an elevated risk of esophageal cancer after comparing data from about 15,000 patients who were diagnosed with either esophageal, stomach, or colorectal cancer, who were registered in the UK General Practice Research Database, with data from five times as many controls.

Specifically, Dr. Green found patients who were given more than 10 prescriptions or took oral bisphophonates for more than five years were twice as likely as controls to be diagnosed with esophageal cancer. In other words, these drugs could cause esophageal cancer in two out of 1000 patients on the medications.

Bisphosphonates are commonly used to treat osteoporosis and other bone diseases. Food consumer reported earlier that these anti-osteoporosis drugs are also linked with an […]