Cancer in pregnancy on the rise, but researchers unsure why

THE rate of pregnancy-associated cancer is rising, according to a new Australian study.

While that might be expected with an ageing population, the researchers found that increasing maternal age was a relatively small risk factor.

University of Sydney-led researchers studied the records of almost 782,000 women who gave birth in NSW between 1994?2008.

A total of 1798 of women had cancer diagnosed either during pregnancy or within a year of giving birth.

The researchers found that the rates of cancers associated with pregnancy rose from 112.3 to 191.5 per 100,000 maternities in the time period studied, but only 14% of the rise could be explained by increasing maternal age.

?Improved diagnostic techniques, detection and increased interaction with health services during pregnancy might also contribute to higher incidence rates,? the authors wrote.

Overall the incidence of pregnancy-associated cancer in NSW was higher than generally reported, however this was partly due to the higher rates of melanoma in Australia compared to the rest of the world.

Pregnancy-associated melanomas were occurring in 45.7 per 100,000 NSW women, compared to 8.7 per 100,000 cases reported internationally.

Pregnancy-associated breast cancer rates were also higher in NSW, with 28.8 cases per 100,000 women compared to international estimates of 19.3 cases per 100,000 women.

However, cervical and ovarian cancer rates were lower than those reported in international estimates.

According to the authors, genetic and environmental origins of pregnancy-associated cancers are likely to exist prior to pregnancy; however the hormones and growth factors necessary for fetal growth may also accelerate tumour growth.

More than 70% of cancers were diagnosed following delivery. Because of the higher rates of planned preterm births in women who were diagnosed with cancer, the authors believe that some of these cancers were suspected during pregnancy or that the physiological changes of pregnancy made the cancer more difficult to diagnose.

BJOG 2012; online 5 September

Source: http://www.medicalobserver.com.au/news/cancer-in-pregnancy-on-the-rise-but-researchers-unsure-why

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