Excluding those diagnosed with breast cancer within two years of blood collection did not impact results for pre-diagnosis sRANKL or the pre-diagnosis sRANKL/OPG ratio, but did attenuate associations between pre-diagnosis OPG concentrations and risk death (e.g. ER+ cases: all-cause mortality q5 vs q1 HR 1.24 [0.79–1.93]; ptrend 0.13 and breast cancer-specific q5 vs q1 HR 1.64 [0.89–3.05]; ptrend 0.23). The gene discussed is ESR1; the disease is breast cancer.