Pregnancy Safe After Breast Cancer, Study Finds - East Idaho News

Pregnancy Safe After Breast Cancer, Study Finds

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Thinkstock H 041511 PregnantBelly?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1332337414400Comstock/Thinkstock(VIENNA, Austria) — Contrary to past belief, it is safe to become pregnant after being treated for breast cancer, according to new research presented Wednesday at the eighth European Breast Cancer Conference in Vienna, Austria.

The research was specific to women who were diagnosed with estrogen-receptor positive tumors, which have protein molecules that need estrogen to grow.  About 60 percent of all breast cancers are ER-positive, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Despite the fear that high hormone levels that occur during pregnancy might stimulate breast cancer growth, data overwhelming showed that it does not, experts said.

The study included 333 women ages 21 to 48 who became pregnant after a breast cancer diagnosis and 874 women with similar breast cancer diagnoses who did not become pregnant.  About five years after pregnancy, researchers found about 30 percent of all the women had a recurrence of the cancer.

In the past, some women who became pregnant were advised to get abortions because of the potential dangers of recurrence, but researchers said this recommendation might be unnecessary in most cases.

The study showed that there was no difference in recurrence among women who became pregnant and those who did not.  Indeed, women who became pregnant within two years of their breast cancer diagnoses might have better “disease-free survival” than those who did not become pregnant at all.  But researchers warned that this observational finding must be more rigorously researched before presenting it as fact.

“These … messages are vital as women with ER+ disease were frequently advised against pregnancy for fear that pregnancy could stimulate the recurrence of the disease by means of hormonal stimulation,” Dr. Hatem Azim, lead author of the study and medical oncologist at the Jules Bordet Institute in Brussels, wrote in an email.

This is the first study ever to address the impact of pregnancy on breast cancer outcome in patients with this kind of breast cancer, Azim said.  It is also the first study to provide reliable information on the role of abortion and insights on the time to become pregnant after a breast cancer diagnosis.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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