[Cancer and pregnancy. Retrospective study on the frequency in 57,393 deliveries]

Between 1950 and 1984 out of 57.393 women who delivered at the First Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Catania University Medical School, Catania, Italy, 40 cases of malignant neoplasia were diagnosed with an incidence of one case in 1.434 deliveries. The most frequent neoplasias is cervix carcinoma (21 cases; 52.5%), followed by breast cancer (6 cases; 15%), ovarian cancer (4 cases; 10%) and leukemia (4 cases; 10%). There was very rare association with Hodgkin disease (2 cases; 5%), osteosarcoma (1 case; 2.5%), medulloblastoma (1 case; 2.5%), and skin melanoma (1 case; 2.5%). Since cancer of the uterine cervix is the most frequent neoplasia (one cases out of 2.733 deliveries), cervical smear should be performed during pregnancy in women that never performed it.