Fertility concerns affect treatment decisions of many young women with cancer.

2004 NOV 4 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Concern about infertility resulting from breast cancer therapy influenced treatment decisions in nearly one-third of young patients participating in a recent study.

The study - the largest to date to examine fertility concerns among young women with breast cancer - found that the majority of the women were very concerned about the ability to have a child as well as the impact that pregnancy might have on disease recurrence, despite the relative lack of data on these risks. The findings were published in the October 15, 2004, issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

"These findings indicate that women may overestimate infertility risk, and highlight the need for enhanced communication between physicians and patients," said Ann H. Partridge, MD, MPH, medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and lead author of the study. "A key challenge in discussing these issues is the lack of comprehensive data on how cancer therapy affects fertility, particularly when considering newer chemotherapy regimens, and whether getting pregnant after therapy affects the risk of disease recurrence."

Over 11,500 women under the age of 40 are diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the United States. Some breast cancer therapies may cause women to stop menstruating, either temporarily or permanently, and women who continue to have normal menstrual cycles may go through menopause earlier or may be less fertile following chemotherapy than their peers. In addition, while standard ...