Study shows there's no need to discourage pregnancy in Ca survivors. (Previous Radiation Tx May Raise Risks).

NEW ORLEANS -- Pregnancy should not be discouraged in women who have undergone cancer therapy because they have a low risk of cancer recurrence and pregnancy complications, Dr. Elyce Cardonick said at the annual meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

But she warned that cancer patients who have undergone previous radiation therapy may face a higher rate of pregnancy complications.

"It's a very small number of case reports in the literature, but I'm paying close attention to them now," Dr. Cardonick of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, told this newspaper.

Dr. Cardonick's study followed 49 cancer survivors prospectively through their subsequent 63 pregnancies. Only 6.3% of the women needed some form of fertility treatment to conceive, and 12.5% miscarried at least once, she commented.

Of the 66 children born (there were three sets of twins) over 6 years, the rate of major malformations was 1.5% (one child with an omphalocele), and the rate of fetal growth restriction was 1.5%. The mean birth weight was 3,200 g, the mean gestational age at delivery was 38 weeks, and 47,5% of the pregnancies were delivered vaginally.

In general, babies born to mothers who had been exposed to radiation therapy weighed 400 g less than average, and five of the eight preterm deliveries were to mothers who had received radiation therapy.

There was no noticeable effect of prior chemotherapy exposure.