Breast cancer during pregnancy.

Breast cancer during pregnancy involves a host of psychosocial, ethical, religious, and legal considerations, as well as medical multidisciplinary decisions. Treatment modalities. Breast or chest wall radiation therapy should be avoided because the fetal dose, regardless of the trimester, can cause permanent complications. In the second and third trimester, chemotherapy is associated with intrauterine growth retardation and prematurity in approximately half of the infants; the risk of birth defects is a concern during the first several weeks. Typical anesthetic agents readily reach the fetus but are not known to be teratogenic. Modified radical mastectomy without delay is the best option in pregnant patients with Stage I or II and some Stage III cancer. Although abortion allows full treatment to the mother, it is not known whether the procedure is therapeutic. Early in pregnancy abortion deserves strong consideration. Prognosis. The poor prognosis of pregnancy-associated breast cancer in the past probably is attributable to a combination of initial delay and possibly to the unfavorable biologic characteristics of pregnancy. When pregnant patients are matched stage for stage with control subjects, survival seems equivalent, although pregnant patients have more advanced stage disease.