Between higher hip bone mineral density (BMD) or having stronger bones and the risk of a woman developing breast cancer there is a causal connection, a team of researchers from the University of Arizona College of Public Health found.

The study consisted in researchers analyzing health records of 9,941 postmenopausal women who participated in the Women's Health Initiative, a long-term women's health study. The women, whose average age was 63 at the beginning of the study, were submitted to a health check by using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), a means of measuring bone mineral density.

Over an average of 8.43 years of successive follow-up, 327 women developed breast cancer. Researchers drew the conclusion that women with high BMD were 35 percent more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer. And for every unit of raise in total hip BMD, a woman's risk increased 25 percent.

The examiners said that women with high bone density are overweight or obese and this is a factor which triggers to a higher risk of developing breast cancer.

As suggested by the study, incorporating BMD tests with standard risk assessments such as Gail model could noticeably enhance doctors' ability to estimate older women’s risk of developing invasive breast cancer. The Gail model includes data regarding family history, age and other aspects to predict a woman's risk of breast cancer. Nevertheless, the model doesn’t comprise information on bone mineral density, which is known to be a risk factor for breast cancer, the second most common type of cancer after lung cancer.

Another study published this year shows that women suffering from breast cancer who had a lack of vitamin D when their diagnosis was put were more susceptible to have a recurrence or to pass away due to the disease. Vitamin D is also significant to bone health, promoting bone formation and mineralization and being vital in the development of a strong skeleton.