CANCER study in the Wall Street Journal
February 2009
Pregnancy Doesn t Worsen
Breast Cancer Study Says
Pregnant women who develop breast cancer don't have worse odds of death or of cancer returning than other young breast cancer patients a new study found.
The study is one of the largest to look at whether breast cancer hits pregnant and recently pregnant women harder than other women. It contradicts some smaller earlier studies that suggested maternity made things worse.
"If we can get them early we can treat them aggressively and have good and promising outcomes for both woman and child" said the study's lead author Dr. Beth Beadle M.D. of the University of Texas, Anderson Cancer Center.
The Houston hospital has the world s largest registry of pregnant breast cancer patients and their children.
In the new study being published Monday in the journal Cancer, researchers analyzed data from 652 women ages 35 and younger who were treated for breast cancer at M D Anderson from 1973 through 2006.
The group included 104 women with pregnancy associated cancers—51 who had breast cancer during pregnancy and 53 who developed the illness within a year after.
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