Prevalence of osteoporosis among cancer patients in Germany

In this prospective study, we measured bone mineral density (BMD) in 1,041 cancer patients undergoing an oncological rehabilitation program in an inpatient rehabilitation clinic. There was an osteoporosis prevalence of approximately 16%, independent of sex, which is considerably higher than in the community-dwelling population. There is evidence that cancer patients are at risk of an increased BMD-loss following the disease and its therapy. Nevertheless, there is only little data available about the prevalence of osteoporosis in German cancer patients. Therefore, we measured BMD in 1,041 oncological inpatients undergoing rehabilitation. From February 2006 to September 2009, BMD was measured in oncological patients with dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA; femur and spine). Statistical analysis for prevalence of osteoporosis was done in descriptive manner calculating means, standard deviation, frequencies, and 95% confidence intervals. To compare the prevalence of osteoporosis in different subgroups, χ ^sup 2^ tests were done with p