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Pregnancy and the Risk for Cancer in Neurofibromatosis 1
Roope A Kallionpää1,2, Juha Määttänen1,3,4, Jussi Leppävirta3,4
1Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
Genes, Chromosomes & Cancer
|February 22, 2025
Summary
Women with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) experience a higher cancer risk during and after pregnancy compared to the general population. However, pregnancy does not further elevate this risk in NF1 patients.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Genetics
- Reproductive Health
Background:
- Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) significantly increases cancer risk.
- Pregnancy may influence the growth of benign neurofibromas in women with NF1.
- The impact of pregnancy on cancer risk in NF1 patients remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between pregnancy and cancer incidence in women with NF1.
- To compare cancer risk in pregnant NF1 patients with controls and non-pregnant NF1 individuals.
- To determine if giving birth to a child with NF1 affects cancer risk in mothers without NF1.
Main Methods:
- Utilized Finnish Medical Birth Register for pregnancy data in NF1 cohort and controls.
- Extracted cancer data from the Finnish Cancer Registry.
- Calculated standardized incidence ratios (SIR) to assess cancer risk.
Main Results:
- Observed 263 pregnancies in 136 women with NF1 and 3176 in 1720 controls.
- NF1 group had elevated cancer incidence during/after pregnancy (SIR 6.44) compared to controls (SIR 0.25).
- Cancer incidence in NF1 women post-pregnancy (SIR 7.54) was comparable to NF1 women aged 20-49 (SIR 8.63).
Conclusions:
- Pregnancy-associated cancer incidence in NF1 is higher than in the general population but not significantly different from non-pregnant NF1 women.
- Giving birth to a child with NF1 does not alter cancer risk for mothers without NF1.
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