Management of breast cancer during pregnancy

Abstract

There are no significant series of patients in worldwide literature to develop standard protocols. Pregnant women must be followed by a multidisciplinary team.

Health care experiences among women diagnosed with gestational breast cancer

“…While the involvement of a broad range of health care professionals is necessary in the case of GBC, it poses challenges in terms of communication and consistency of information. Compassionate care; good communication between members of the treating team and with the women; involving women in treatment decisions and respecting their decisions were features of "communication" that enhanced participants' satisfaction with care and these are also recognised as essential aspects of cancer care in general (Breast Cancer Network Australia;Oduncu, Kimmig, Hepp & Emmerich, 2003;Prades, Ferro, Gil & Borras, 2014;Rovera et al, 2013). Conversely, the study clearly demonstrates the detrimental effects on women's perceptions of care of poor communication between members of the treating team, poorly co-ordinated care, and conflicting advice about the best treatment.…”

Management of pregnancy associated breast cancer with chemotherapy in a developing country

“…Ten of these patients had breast conserving management while mastectomy was done in two. Nine patients were reported to be alive and disease free after a median follow up of 20 months, range 3–52 months [11] . Our case that had breast conservation is alive and disease free.…”

“…Current evidence showing the safety of chemotherapy has been successfully illustrated in several series [9] , [10] . Expectedly, absence of considerably large series in this uncommon presentation as has been obtained with breast cancer makes the presence of standard protocols challenging [11] . We are not aware of any published reports of its utilization in West Africa as the majority of published reports have emerged from the Western world.…”

The role of imaging techniques in the diagnosis, staging and choice of therapeutic conduct in pregnancy associated breast cancer

“…Treatment options for patients with PABC are similar to those suitable for nonpregnant patients, with the same basic principles: local disease control and prevention of systemic extension, figure 5 [29]. During pregnancy certain therapeutic agents should be avoided and in the decision to adopt a certain drug regimen the following should be taken into account: the couple's desire for keeping the pregnancy, gestational age at treatment onset, the absence of fetal abnormalities at routine genetic or ultrasound screening tests, fetal viability [29] (fig 5).…”

“…Primary surgery addresses particularly early stages of BC, with small tumors and absent loco regional adenopathies, or for situations when the patient refuses neoadjuvant treatment [29]. Selection of these patients who benefit most from primary surgery is done using imaging methods such as US and MRI, which evaluate disease extension [15,29].…”