Is Pregnancy Safe After Breast Cancer?

Many young breast cancer survivors retain a goal of childbearing, but both patients and their physicians have concerns that a pregnancy, with its associated hormone-amplified milieu, will increase the risk for breast cancer recurrence, especially if the disease is hormone sensitive, i.e., estrogen receptor (ER)–positive.

To address this issue, international investigators conducted a multicenter case-control study in which 333 patients who were pregnant following a diagnosis of breast cancer were matched (1:3) with 874 nonpregnant breast cancer patients with similar clinical characteristics. Median follow-up was 9.6 years after original breast cancer diagnosis and 7.2 years after pregnancy.

Results were as follows:

• In the pregnant cohort, 58% w…