Most Young Women Can Have Children After Breast Cancer
Women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer at age 40 or younger who want to get pregnant and give birth after completing treatment for breast cancer appear to be able to successfully do so, according to a study presented at the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting.
Key takeaways
Of the nearly 200 women in the study who said they tried to get pregnant after breast cancer treatment, 73% were successful and 65% gave birth.
28% of the women had procedures to freeze their eggs or embryos (called fertility preservation) shortly after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
The time from diagnosis to first pregnancy ranged from six months to about 10 years.
Women who had procedures to freeze their eggs or embryos were more likely to give birth than those who did not have these procedures.
What the results mean for you
If you’ve been diagnosed with breast cancer at a young age and having a child is important to you, the results of this study suggest that you may be able to get pregnant and give birth after your treatments are over.
“This is the first study with more than 10 years of follow-up that also accounts for attempt at conception,” study co-author Ann Partridge, MD, MPH, wrote in an email to Breastcancer.org. Dr. Partridge is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, vice-chair of medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the leader of the Young Women’s Breast Cancer Study. “It shows that most women who attempted to conceive a child after breast cancer treatment can do so and give birth.”
The results also show the benefit that fertility preservation can have for younger women with breast cancer and the importance of this being an option offered when counseling patients, Dr. Partridge added.
About the study
The women in the study are part of the Young Women’s Breast Cancer Study, which is tracking the medical and psychosocial issues young women face following a breast cancer diagnosis. According to Dr. Partridge, earlier studies on pregnancy rates in young women after breast cancer treatment were limited because they only included certain groups of women, and only followed the women for short periods of time.
The 1,213 women in the study were diagnosed with stage 0 to stage III breast cancer between the age of 17 and 40 years. Women who were diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer or had their uterus or ovaries removed before being diagnosed with breast cancer were excluded from the study.
Detailed results
Overall, 197 women (74% of whom were white) said they attempted to get pregnant:
14% had stage 0 breast cancer (DCIS)
41% had stage I breast cancer
35% had stage II breast cancer
10% had stage III breast cancer
76% had hormone receptor-positive breast cancer
68% received chemotherapy
57% started hormonal therapy in the year after they were diagnosed
13% had a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation
51% said they were financially comfortable, which the researchers defined as having enough money left over after paying bills to buy special things
51% had never been pregnant and 72% had never given birth before being diagnosed
28% had their eggs or embryos frozen when diagnosed
15% said they had experienced infertility before being diagnosed
Half the women got pregnant less than four years after being diagnosed and half got pregnant more than four years after being diagnosed.
Women who were older when diagnosed with breast cancer were less likely to get pregnant, while women who were financially comfortable were more likely to get pregnant.
A number of factors didn’t seem to affect the women’s chances of becoming pregnant or giving birth, including:
a history of infertility
whether they had given birth before
characteristics of the breast cancer
type of treatment received
whether they had a BRCA mutation
race or ethnicity
Sorouri, K. et al. Fertility among young breast cancer survivors attempting pregnancy: A prospective, multi-center cohort study. 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting. Abstract 1518.
Updated on August 31, 2024
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