[Pregnancy after treated breast cancer. Results of a case-control study]

Sixty-eight cases of pregnancy after carcinoma of the breast were collected during a survey conducted by the Société Française de Gynécologie: 27 patients had one or several pregnancies interrupted at an early stage; 41 patients had at least one uninterrupted pregnancy. The fate of these patients was compared to that of 136 controls similar in all respects, except for the absence of post-cancer pregnancy. There was no significant difference in survival curves: the 10-year survival rate in our 68 patients was 71% (90% in those with N- cancer; 71% in those with N+ cancer, with no significant difference between cases and controls in each group). The patients whose pregnancies were interrupted had the same prognosis as those who delivered at term. The survival of 14 patients who conceived within 6 months of the breast cancer treatment was not significantly different from that of the corresponding controls. Pregnancy after breast cancer does not seem to alter the prognosis of the disease. In women with good prognosis cancer, the survival rate is excellent whatever the delay between cancer and pregnancy, and women should not be discouraged from having children; in women with poor prognosis cancer (N+), the outcome is not modified by pregnancy, and it remains lethal in about 50% of cases.