Pregnancy shouldn't delay cancer diagnosis

HOUSTON, Feb. 14 (UPI) -- Young women should not let pregnancy delay diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, U.S. researchers say.

The study findings, published in the journal Cancer, indicated pregnancy had no impact on breast cancer survival after 10 years, but found women who were pregnant had been more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stages of the disease and less likely to get early treatment.

"Breast cancer in young women is a highly aggressive disease, and it's important that we study it in hopes of making a difference in terms of treatment," study first author Dr. Beth Beadle of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston said in a statement.

For the retrospective study, Beadle and colleagues reviewed the records of 652 breast cancer patients under age 35 at the time of diagnosis who were treated at M.D. Anderson between 1973 and 2006. Of these, 51 had developed their cancer during their pregnancy and 53 developed the disease within one year after pregnancy.

Women with pregnancy-associated cancer were more likely to have more advanced disease -- both in the breast and lymph nodes -- at the time of treatment. Of the 25 pregnant cancer patients, 22 patients -- 88 percent -- had had disease symptoms that had not been evaluated during their pregnancy.