The rate of cancer during pregnancy was lower than expected for all sites, a finding that could not be explained entirely by delayed diagnosis.
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From Wiley Online Library
Rate of Cancer During Pregnancy Lower Than Expected
the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:
The number of observed cancer cases during pregnancy was lower than predicted for all types, according to an article published online in the journal Cancer.
The study was register-based and used data from the Swedish Multi-Generation Register and the National Cancer Register from 1963 to 2007. The women were assessed at seven time periods: pregnancy, the three trimesters, 0-6 months, 7-12 months, and 2 years postpartum.
In the study, pregnancy-associated cancer (PAC) was determined to be a malignancy detected during pregnancy or within 2 years postpartum.
Results showed that the most common PACs were melanoma (n = 232), breast cancer (n = 139) and cervical cancer (n = 139).
The overall number of cancer cases during pregnancy was lower than expected by the study for all types of cancer, with the observed versus the expected (O/E) ratio of 0.46 (95% CI: 0.43, 0.49).
Throughout the windows of 0-6 months, 7-12 months, and the second year after delivery, the O/E ratio was close to 1 (0.93; 95% CI: 0.88, 0.98; 0.96; 95% CI: 0.91, 1.01; and 0.95; 95% CI: 0.92, 0.99, respectively).
All sites had a lower than expected rate of PAC, which could not be completely explained by delayed diagnosis. A rebound in the number of cancer cases after pregnancy was limited to melanoma, nervous system malignancies, breast cancer, and thyroid cancer.
