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Success and risks of pregnancy after breast cancer

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Abstract

Introduction

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide. The number of childbearing-age women diagnosed with early breast cancer (eBC) is increasing, raising questions over their subsequent fertility.

Purpose

The main objective of this study was therefore to assess, in a cohort of eBC patients with pregnancy desire, the rate of live births achieved spontaneously or by assisted reproductive technology.

Methods

We conducted an observational, descriptive, retrospective study including patients aged 18–40, treated for eBC at the Institut de Cancérologie de l’Ouest (ICO) Pays de Loire between July 2010 and July 2016, with pregnancy desire. The primary outcome was the rate of live births. Secondary outcomes were overall survival, disease-free survival, time to conception, and spontaneous or assisted pregnancy rate.

Results

61 patients were included, with a live birth rate of 19.7% (12/61). We observed no recurrence or death in women with a pregnancy. Pregnancy started with a median time of 36.4 months after the end of treatment (4.1–51.3 months). All pregnancies in this cohort were achieved spontaneously.

Conclusion

The results of our cohort are consistent with previous results showing that spontaneous pregnancy remains possible after treatment for eBC without increasing the risk of recurrence or death.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

During this study, no financial support was received.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Cancérologie de l’Ouest Pays de Loire, 15 rue André Boquel, 49055 Cedex 02, Angers, France

    Chloe Leproux

  2. Methodology and Biostatistics, Institut de Cancérologie de l’Ouest Pays de Loire, 15 rue André Boquel, 49055 Cedex 02, Angers, France

    Valerie Seegers

  3. Medical Oncology, Institut de Cancérologie de l’Ouest Pays de Loire, 15 rue André Boquel, 49055 Cedex 02, Angers, France

    Anne Patsouris

  4. Medical Gynecology, Institut de Cancérologie de l’Ouest Pays de Loire, 15 rue André Boquel, 49055 Cedex 02, Angers, France

    Baptiste Sauterey

Authors
  1. Chloe Leproux
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  2. Valerie Seegers
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  4. Baptiste Sauterey
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Contributions

BS provided idea and concept and participated in control and supervision; BS and CL involved in design; CL performed data collection and processing, literature review, and writing the article; VS contributed to analysis and interpretation; AP and BS involved in critical review; and AP performed English correction:.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chloe Leproux.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures in this human-subject study were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The protocol was accepted by the Ethics Committee of Angers University Hospital Center on 12/16/2019.

Informed consent

The data were collected anonymously from information contained in patients’ electronic medical records; surviving patients were informed of the use of their data by post. To oppose it, they were required to write to the Data Protection Officer within one month. Informed consent was not obtained, which was in accordance with ethical approval from the Ethics Committee of Angers University Hospital Center (file number 2019/114).

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Leproux, C., Seegers, V., Patsouris, A. et al. Success and risks of pregnancy after breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 188, 593–600 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-021-06232-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-021-06232-5

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