Upper Gastrointestinal Tumors during Pregnancy: Diagnosis, Risk Factors, and Treatment Options - A Literature Review

Malignant (and benign) tumors of the upper gastrointestinal tract are very rare in pregnancy and can be difficult to diagnose because their symptoms are often misinterpreted as "typical" symptoms of pregnant women like vomiting, nausea, and reflux. Alterations of the female hormones may affect central aspects, such as modulation of immune response and prognosis.

Prolonged "pregnancy-associated" symptoms need further diagnostics in all cases. Once diagnosed, treatment of upper gastrointestinal tumors during pregnancy is based on multimodal treatment approaches depending on the gestational age of the pregnancy and the stage of the tumor and may include chemotherapy and radical surgical resection.

Only little data exist analyzing the treatment modalities of upper gastrointestinal tumors during pregnancy. Nevertheless, this data demonstrates that curative therapeutic options and guideline-related oncologic concepts can safely be performed in pregnant women. In particular, radical oncologic surgical resection is practicable in different stages of pregnancy and should not be delayed. In any case, decisions in regard to therapy have to be made by a group of specialists taking into account the specific circumstances of the individual patient especially gestational age and tumor stage.