Are adjuvant bisphosphonates now standard of care of women with early stage breast cancer? A debate from the Canadian Bone and the Oncologist New Updates meeting

The 9th Bone and the Oncologist New Updates conference was held in Ottawa, Canada during 2014. This annual meeting focuses on innovative research into the mechanisms and consequences of treatment-induced and metastatic bone disease. Given the recent presentation of the Oxford overview's “Effects of bisphosphonate treatment on recurrence and cause-specific mortality in women with early breast cancer: A meta-analysis of individual patient data from randomized trials” at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, a debate as to the pro's and con's of adjuvant bisphosphonate use in early stage breast cancer was undertaken. As bisphosphonate treatment in post-menopausal women appeared to demonstrate a similar magnitude of benefit to that of other commonly used adjuvant strategies the debate assessed whether or not there was sufficient data to incorporate adjuvant bisphosphonates into standard practice and if so, in which patient populations.