Pregnancy-Associated Breast Cancer: A Retrospective Institutional Cohort Study

Abstract

Pregnancy associated breast cancer is a rare disease. It presents a unique entity of breast cancer with aggressive phenotype. In this paper we present a case series of pregnant breast cancer patients treated at our institution between 2007 and 2019 and summarize the key recommendations on managing such patients. For the purpose of this retrospective study data were retrieved from institutional electronic database. We collected basic patients’, tumours’ characteristics and outcome of mothers and babies. The main aim was to check how we followed the international guidelines in daily practice. Fourteen patients met the search criteria. The majority of tumours were high grade, triple negative or HER2 positive, two patients were de novo metastatic. Treatment plan was made for each patient by multidisciplinary team. In all but two patients delivery was on term and without major complications. Eight patients were treated with systemic chemotherapy, all received anthracyclines, one also taxanes. The major violation from international guidelines was the use of blue dye in one patient. Management of breast cancer diagnosed during pregnancy is a major professional and ethical challenge and every patient has to be discussed individually within multidisciplinary board.