Pregnancy after infiltrative breast cancer treatment: Experience of the CHRU of Strasbourg with literature review

Objectives. - Identification of women who survived infiltrative breast cancer and subsequently conceived and determination of the rate of pregnancy, the time from diagnosis to pregnancy, the outcome of breast cancer and of subsequent pregnancies. Patients and methods. - Women treated for breast cancer at the Gynaecology and Obstetrics Unit of the University Hospital of Strasbourg between 1993 and 2007 who subsequently conceived were prospectively registered and followed yearly. Results. - Twenty pregnancies subsequent to surgery for breast carcinoma were observed in 598 patients. This association accounted for 3.3% of the cases of infiltrative breast carcinoma in potentially fertile women under 45. Six pregnancies were observed less than two years after breast cancer diagnosis (four abortions and two live births) and 17 pregnancies occurred after two years (three abortions, three miscarriages, one extrauterine pregnancy and 10 live births). Two patients who developed distant metastases after pregnancy (less than one year and more than five years after diagnosis respectively) died. One patient, whose pregnancy occurred three years after the diagnosis, is still alive with a lung cancer and brain metastases. One patient was treated for local breast cancer recurrence. The overall prognosis was good, 18 patients (90%) being alive with a mean follow-up of 105 (S.D. 43) months. Discussion and conclusion. - Pregnancy is more likely to occur in patients with a prolonged survival and no evidence of disease. Maternal prognosis is mainly related to initial stadification of breast cancer and not to its hormonodependence. (c) 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. Tons droits reserves.