Cancer is less lethal to elderly than hip fractures

ELDERLY people who suffer a hip fracture have a lower chance of survival than patients who develop breast cancer, a major study has found.

Less than a third of men over the age of 65, and half of women the same age, will survive more than five years after the lifechanging injury, usually dying of heart failure or pneumonia triggered by the fracture.

By comparison, nearly nine out of ten women with breast cancer will live a further five years. Men with prostate cancer also have similar chances of survival.

Experts say the findings are particularly concerning because the NHS is currently failing to identify many patients at risk of suffering a fracture.

NHS hospitals are supposed to run a fracture screening service, which checks whether anyone over the age of 50 who suffers a bone injury caused by a minor accident has signs of osteoporosis – a bone-thinning disease which raises the risk of further fractures. However, less than half of hospitals offer these checks, known as Fracture Liaison Services.

In the UK, 22 per cent of women, and almost seven per cent of men aged over 50 years are believed to have osteoporosis, and a family history of the disease along with thyroid problems, smoking and certain medications increase the risk.

The condition is typically ‘silent’, causing no symptoms until a fracture occurs. In February,

The Mail on Sunday launched a campaign calling on every NHS Trust to make Fracture Liaison Services available to bone-break victims over 50.

The new study, published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research last week, analysed the health records of 100,000 fracture patients. Those over the age of 85 were at most risk of dying following a fracture. The most common time for patients to die was within a month of the injury.

Lauren Wiggins, director of clinical services at the Royal Osteoporosis Society, said the results demonstrated the ‘truly devastating impact’ fractures can have on the lives of patients.

She added: ‘Unfortunately, with only half of NHS Trusts in England and Wales having a Fracture Liaison Service, 90,000 people are at risk of further, life-threatening fractures.’

‘NHS is failing to identify many patients at risk’