Pregnancy May Delay Treatment Of Breast Cancer

By Karla Gale
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - When breast cancer develops during pregnancy, its diagnosis and treatment of are often delayed. As a result, the woman's long-term survival may be jeopardized, doctors at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report.

"Pregnancy-associated breast cancer is the most frequent cancer associated with pregnancy," Dr. George H. Perkins told Reuters Health, but it is low on the list of possible diagnoses that most doctors consider.

Furthermore, pregnancy can mask symptoms of breast cancer, making it more difficult to recognize, he noted.

The team identified all the cases of breast cancer associated with pregnancy that were treated at their institution between 1973 and 2006; 51 developed during pregnancy while 53 occurred within a year after pregnancy.

Women with pregnancy-associated breast cancer had more advanced tumors than similar young women who were not pregnant, indicating delayed diagnosis. Nevertheless, outcomes were similar in the two groups, the researchers report in the medical journal Cancer.

That's probably because most women were given a course of chemotherapy before undergoing surgery, Perkins said.

Among the 51 women who developed breast cancer during pregnancy, 25 received no treatment until after delivery. There was a trend toward worse 10-year survival rates with deferred treatment compared with treatment during pregnancy.

In addition to timely treatment, the research team also urges thorough diagnostic evaluation of breast symptoms that occur during pregnancy, using ultrasound or, with proper shielding of the fetus, mammography.