Leukemia and lymphoma in pregnancy

Treatment of pregnant women with chemotherapy may pose a risk to the fetus, raising therapeutic, ethical, moral, and social dilemmas. Publications on this issue are limited to retrospective series and case reports, thus further complicating decision making. Diagnosis and staging are usually performed as in nonpregnant women, but procedures that expose the fetus to radiation are excluded. Chemotherapy is not recommended in the first trimester to avoid fetal malformations. Thus, the option is either treatment delay or pregnancy termination. Later in pregnancy, treatment is often initiated without delay, with no apparent evidence of teratogenicity.