Supplemental and topical fluorides may not increase osteosarcoma risk: Study

According to recent research published in the Journal of The American Dental Association, supplemental and topical fluorides used in the dental office and in over-the-counter products are not related to an increased risk of developing osteosarcoma.

A relationship between fluoride and osteosarcoma has been hypothesized but not validated. To the authors' knowledge, there are no published studies examining topical fluoride or dietary fluoride supplements and osteosarcoma risk.

Therefore, Catherine Hayes and colleagues from the Division of Commonwealth Medicine, Office of Clinical Affairs, University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA carried out the present case-control study to examine the association between ever or never use of topical and dietary fluoride supplements and osteosarcoma.

The authors performed a secondary data analysis on data from 2 separate but linked studies. Patients for Phase 1 and Phase 2 were selected from US hospitals using a hospital-based matched case-control study design.

Case patients were those who had received diagnoses of osteosarcoma, and control patients were those who had received diagnoses of other bone tumors or nonneoplastic conditions.

In Phase 1, a total of 209 case patients and 440 control patients were those seeking treatment at orthopedic departments. In Phase 2, incident case patients (N = 108) and control patients (N = 296) were identified and treated by physicians.

This analysis included all patients who met eligibility criteria and on whom the authors had complete data on exposure, outcome, and covariates. The authors used conditional logistic regression to estimate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association of topical fluoride use and supplemental fluoride use with osteosarcoma.

The study revealed that the adjusted odds ratios were 0.94 (95% CI, 0.60 to 1.46) and 0.78 (95% CI, 0.46 to 1.33) for topical fluoride and supplemental fluoride, respectively.

Hence, this led the authors to conclude that neither topical nor dietary fluoride supplements are associated with an increased risk of developing osteosarcoma.