Tooth loss in breast cancer patients: A comparison between tamoxifen-treated and non-treated patients

Tooth loss (TL) affects quality of life and general health. The literature suggesting that tamoxifen treatment in patients with breast cancer (BC) could be associated with alterations in oral health, increasing the risk of TL, is still scarce. This work aimed to determine the relationship between TL and tamoxifen consumption in patients with BC.

This cross-sectional observational study was carried out from July to September 2023 in the medical oncology services of the "Virgen de la Puerta" - ESSALUD High Complexity Hospital and "Dr. Luis Pinillos Ganoza" - IREN Norte - Regional Institute of Neoplastic Diseases, in Trujillo - Peru. Overall, 200 adult patients diagnosed with BC were evaluated, of which 100 consumed tamoxifen and 100 did not. Inter- and intra-rater reliability was determined with respect to TL, resulting in intra-class correlation values RHO = 0.971 and interclass RHO = 0.938. The oncologist of the corresponding service performed BC diagnosis and stage. Poisson regression was used to analyze results with a significance level of p<0.05.

No relationship was found between TL and tamoxifen consumption in patients with breast cancer (p= 0.221); however, greater TL was observed in women who consumed tamoxifen for more than one year compared to those who did not use it (p=0.025) and in older adult women compared to young women (p=0.030).

There is a relationship between TL and time of use of tamoxifen in patients with BC, concluding that patients who consumed tamoxifen for more than one year had greater TL than those who did not. Furthermore, no relationship was found between TL and cancer stages, but there was greater TL in older adult patients and also in those who consumed tamoxifen and did not receive chemotherapy or radiotherapy.