When cancer is diagnosed during pregnancy, are termination and delaying treatment the only options? According to Dr. Frédéric Amant, standard oncological treatments with just a few restrictions are safe for both mother and baby. He strongly believes that by caring for the mother you are caring for her unborn child.
In his enlightening talk, he details the results of his study of 215 women who were treated for cancer during pregnancy and the impact of treatments at different stages of pregnancy. Within this group, the closely monitored chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery had little impact on the pregnancy; outcomes were close to the standard population.
The mothers and babies are doing well despite only a small number of the pregnancies being allowed to continue to full term – primarily due to the policy on cancer and not the treatment