Study shows most women attempting to conceive after breast cancer treatment can do so and give birth. Dana-Farber's Kimia Sorouri, MD, MPH, discusses the first prospective study with more than 10 years of follow-up that also accounts for conception attempts.
In our study, we had the opportunity to, to follow women who've undergone cancer treatment for a very long time as compared to existing studies. And so we were able to have a median follow up of 11 years in our, in our cohort. And we were able to look at women who after having had cancer treatment, then went on to try to get pregnant. And we were able to look at all cancer ty types, not only those that are estrogen receptor positive, um such as in the positive trial, which has provided excellent fertility data. Um but only for those who are estrogen receptor positive. And so in, in our study, we were able to include all cancer subtypes among the women who then went on to try to have uh pregnancy after their cancer treatment, we were able to include nearly 200 women. So specifically 100 and 97 women. Among those, we found that 73% of these women were able to get pregnant and nearly two thirds or or 65% went on to have a live birth. And this is very reassuring for us as, as care providers. But as well. Really important information for our patients who are interested in future fertility. Something that's really important to note as well though is we found that the women who were older at the time of their diagnosis were less likely to go on to become pregnant and also to have a live birth. But importantly, the women who had undergone fertility preservation, so specifically freezing of eggs or embryos before their cancer treatment had the highest odds of going on to have a live birth. And that's really important because it highlights the need for fertility preservation services and access to these services in a timely manner before the onset of their cancer treatment. In order to ensure that these women are able to have the future reproductive potential that they aspire to.
