Cancer diagnosis during pregnancy should not delay treatment: study

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Pregnant mothers who are hesitant to undergo treatment are understandably cautious for the safety of their unborn, but a new study suggests that they should no longer delay treatment despite bearing a child, Reuters reports. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that pregnant women need not cease treatment for cancer for fear of the effects of drugs or radiation on their babies.

TIME reports that the study was conducted on 129 children with ages 1 to 3 years, who had prenatal exposure to cancer treatment. Ninety six of these children were exposed to chemotherapy, 11 to radiotherapy, and 13 to surgery, while two children were exposed to drug treatments, and 14 children had mothers who refrained from treatment during their pregnancy. Over 50 percent of the participating women had breast cancer, while 16 percent had blood cancers. The mothers who opted to pursue treatment did so during the last two trimesters of their pregnancy. Researchers then followed up with the babies more than a year after birth.

Results showed that both children from mothers who were exposed to treatment and those who had forgone treatment did not have any impaired cardiac, cognitive, or general development in early childhood, TIME reports.

The New York Times reports that according to Dr. Frédéric Amant, the lead author of the study and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, "We didn’t find any difference in cardiac functioning or cognitive function between children exposed to cancer treatment in utero and the control group."

He added, "To some extent, it’s surprising because cancer treatment is quite toxic, and we know most chemotherapy drugs cross the placenta."

According to Reuters, Amant explained, "We found no significant differences in mental development among children exposed to chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery alone or no treatment."

However, he also said: "Our data include many types of chemotherapy, but we cannot guarantee that all types of chemotherapy are safe."

"Our results show that fear of cancer treatment is no reason to terminate a pregnancy, that maternal treatment should not be delayed and that chemotherapy can be given," Amant added.

This new research can help mothers who have cancer to pursue treatment. The New York Times reports that according to Dr. Elyce H. Cardonick, a maternal-fetal specialist at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, N.J., "The main message of this study is that termination of pregnancy is not necessarily warranted, and that early preterm delivery to be able to do cancer treatment isn’t warranted, either."

Dr. Cardonick is just one of the few doctors who keeps tabs on cancer cases in pregnancy, and is aware of cases wherein "a patient was denied cancer treatment during pregnancy, and died soon after the baby was born, because there was no confidence that cancer treatment during pregnancy would be tolerated by the fetus."

Reuters reports that according to oncologist Peter Naredi, "The important message at this stage seems to be that doctors should not only start cancer treatment immediately, but should also try to maintain the pregnancy to as near full term as possible."