Treatment measures for breast cancer during pregnancy

Most women think that getting breast cancer during pregnancy is not something that can happen to them. However, in fact, more and more expectant mothers around us are being hit by the sudden arrival of breast cancer. Studies have shown that as modern women's childbearing age is postponed, the chance of breast cancer being found during pregnancy is increasing year by year. Modern women should have a new understanding of breast cancer during pregnancy.

Breast cancer during pregnancy and lactation refers to breast cancer diagnosed during pregnancy or within 1 year after delivery. It is easy to be misdiagnosed because it occurs during a special physiological period and is closely related to the health of pregnant women and fetuses. Therefore, once it occurs, it is very serious and difficult to treat.
Facing the threat of breast cancer, whether pregnant women need to give up pregnancy is probably the most concerned issue. Fertility and survival of pregnant women with breast cancer are not in conflict, and whether or not to terminate pregnancy is related to the pregnancy period.
For breast cancer patients in the first three months of pregnancy, doctors generally recommend that the pregnancy be terminated. If the patient insists on continuing the pregnancy, a mastectomy and axillary lymph node dissection are required. Then, adjuvant chemotherapy is performed in the third month of the second trimester of pregnancy. After delivery, radiotherapy and endocrine therapy are performed.
If breast cancer is discovered in the second or third trimester of pregnancy, the order of surgery and chemotherapy should be determined based on the size of the tumor. If the patient undergoes breast-conserving surgery, radiotherapy can be performed after delivery. Endocrine therapy and targeted therapy can also be performed after delivery.
Breast cancer discovered within the last month of pregnancy can be treated after the baby is delivered.
Due to the relationship with the fetus, the existing breast cancer treatment methods have some restrictions on the use of breast cancer during pregnancy. For example, radiotherapy and endocrine therapy cannot be used during the entire pregnancy, chemotherapy can only be used after 3 months of pregnancy, and the impact of targeted therapy on the fetus is not yet clear. The drug dose intensity of chemotherapy for breast cancer during pregnancy is no different from that of conventional chemotherapy. As for whether chemotherapy will pose a threat to the health of the fetus, many retrospective studies have shown that babies born to mothers who receive chemotherapy in the second trimester are in good health, and the incidence of diseases and tumors does not increase when they grow up, but the longer-term impact is still unknown.