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Updated: Jul 14, 2026

Generating a Reproducible Model of Mid-Gestational Maternal Immune Activation using Poly(I:C) to Study Susceptibility and Resilience in Offspring
09:09

Generating a Reproducible Model of Mid-Gestational Maternal Immune Activation using Poly(I:C) to Study Susceptibility and Resilience in Offspring

Published on: August 17, 2022

Heightened risk of breast cancer following pregnancy: could lasting systemic immune alterations contribute?

Keren Shakhar1, Heiddis B Valdimarsdottir, Dana H Bovbjerg

  • 1Biobehavioral Medicine Program, Department of Oncological Sciences, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY 10029-6574, USA. kerenshakhar@gmail.com

Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention : a Publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, Cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology
|June 6, 2007
PubMed

The protective effect of having a first full-term pregnancy (FFTP) at a younger age on women's lifetime risk of breast cancer is well known. Less appreciated is the increased risk seen in the years immediately following pregnancy. This adverse effect is more pronounced and more prolonged in women with later age at FFTP. The mechanisms responsible for this increased risk are still poorly understood. In the present paper, we put forward the hypothesis that the marked peripheral immune changes induced by pregnancy may account for these effects. We highlight immune changes that characterize the unique immune state of pregnancy (a combination of cellular immunosuppression and enhanced inflammatory response), note the resemblance of these changes to cancer escape mechanisms, and discuss why such immune changes may be critical for the development of breast cancer following pregnancy. We further support this idea by initial findings from our own laboratory that the age at FFTP is negatively related to natural killer cell cytotoxicity many years later and propose possible models for the kinetics of the immune changes during and following pregnancy. The effect of age at FFTP on the immune function is currently understudied. Its potential relevance to the development of breast cancer stresses the need for further research.

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