By David Liu, PHD

Saturday Sept 8, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Breast cancer patients may more often fear death from the disease itself.  But a new study in Annals of Oncology reminds us that they are also at higher risk of dying from other causes due to the implications from the disease and treatment, compared to people without breast cancer. That is, when we say breast cancer kills about 37,000 women annually in the United States, the real death number associated with the disease can be much higher.

Dr H. Thomsen of Division of Molecular Genetic Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany and colleagues set out to examine other causes of death in breast cancer patients because the knowledge can help doctors to better reduce the risk of death from those causes.

Data on the population, Cancers and causes of death used for this study came from the nationwide Swedish Family Cancer Database consisting of nearly 3.68 million Swedish women.  Among 641,000 deaths registered from 1987 to 2006, 48,000 were breast cancer patients.

In addition to breast cancer itself, other major causes for death in breast cancer patients included pulmonary diseases, suicide, and heart failure.  Breast cancer patients were found 51 percent more likely to die from diseases of pulmonary circulation, 39 percent more likely to die from suicide and 29 percent more likely to die from heart failure, compared to women without breast cancer.  It is known that breast cancer patients after receiving treatment are at higher risk for heart failure and infections.

Breast cancer patients were 86 percent more likely to die from external causes and 68 percent more likely from gastrointestinal disease, compared to those without breast cancer.

The researchers concluded "Diagnosis of BCa (breast cancer) is associated with increased risks of dying of various causes, including external causes, heart failure, diseases of pulmonary circulation, and gastrointestinal disease. The study fulfills the gap in knowledge of death causes in BCa patients and suggests to draw more attention to comorbidities."

Breast cancer is in many cases preventable.  A healthy lifestyle including a healthy diet is important in preventing the disease.  Many things women can do to prevent the disease include avoiding medical radiation used in diagnostic tools and cancer treatment and hormone replacement therapy indicated to treat meopausal symptoms, according to an authoritative organization.