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Other Considerations for Pregnancy and Breast Cancer
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Lactation (breast milk production) and breast-feeding should be
stopped if surgery or chemotherapy is planned.
If surgery is planned,
breast-feeding should be stopped to reduce blood flow in the breasts and make
them smaller. Breast-feeding should also be stopped if chemotherapy is planned. Many
anticancer drugs, especially cyclophosphamide and methotrexate,
may occur in high levels in breast milk and may harm the nursing baby. Women
receiving chemotherapy should not breast-feed. Stopping lactation does not
improve survival of the mother.
Breast cancer does not appear to harm the fetus.
Breast cancer cells do not seem to pass from the
mother to the fetus.
Pregnancy does not seem to affect the survival of women who
have had breast cancer in the past.
Some doctors recommend that a woman wait 2 years after treatment
for breast cancer before trying to have a baby, so that any early return of the cancer would be detected. This may affect a woman’s decision to become
pregnant. The fetus does not seem to be affected if the mother has previously
had breast cancer.
Effects of certain cancer treatments on later pregnancies are
not known.
The effects of treatment with high-dose chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, with or
without radiation therapy, on later
pregnancies are not known.
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