Evaluating Cancer-related Death Risk Among Pregnant Women

Considering these facts, the new study examined nationwide trends and characteristics of severe maternal morbidity and mortality among pregnant women with cancer in the US.

Is Pregnancy After Cancer Treatment Is Safe For The Mother?

They examined patients with an International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision code for cancer, as defined by the National Cancer Institute5, and American Cancer Society classification6 for case identification (40 types in 16 systems). Patients with cancer were compared with those without.

They found that the prevalence rate of pregnancy with cancer was 69.3 per 100 000 deliveries and increased from 64.5 to 73.4 between 2016 and 2019 (relative increase, 13.8%; P 

The most common cancer type was breast cancer, followed by lymphoma, leukemia, and gynecologic cancers. Over time, the prevalence of skin, soft tissue, breast, and oral cavity/pharyngeal cancers increased.

Factors associated with cancer included patient characteristics with advanced age, more recent years of delivery, the White race, obesity, smoking, preexisting hypertension, and chemotherapy exposure, and pregnancy characteristics with early preterm delivery and cesarean delivery.

After accounting for potential mediators between cancer and adverse outcomes, including obstetric factors and delivery factors, patients with the cancer were more likely to experience severe maternal morbidity.

Key limitations included lack of information on cancer stage and anticancer treatment, disease status at the time of delivery, inability to perform cancer type-specific analyses owing to limited sample size, and ascertainment bias. Researchers hope future studies would these areas.

Source: Medindia