CancerVolume 122, Issue 3 p. 338-339 CancerScopeFree Access Prenatal exposure to maternal cancer with or without treatment does not impair child development First published: 22 January 2016 https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.29880AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Pregnant women who are diagnosed with cancer can start treatment immediately and do not need to terminate their pregnancies according to results from a study presented at a special session on cancer and pregnancy at the 2015 European Cancer Congress, which took place September 25 to 29, 2015, in Vienna, Austria. The study was simultaneously published in The New England Journal of Medicine.1 The study assessed 129 children between the ages of 1 and 3 years who were born after prenatal exposure to cancer treatment and who showed normal development of their mental processes and heart function in comparison with a matching group of children from the general population. The findings showed that children suffer more from prematurity than chemotherapy according to Frédéric Amant, MD, PhD, a gynecological oncologist at the University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium and the lead author of the study. The children were from Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and the Czech Republic and were matched with a similar number of children of the same gestational age who were born to mothers unaffected by cancer. Their general health and mental development were examined when they were 18 months old and again at the age of 3 years. At the age of 3 years, 47 of the children also had their heart function checked with electrocardiograms and echocardiography. The most common cancers among the mothers were breast and hematological cancers. Of the children, 69% were exposed to chemotherapy before birth, 3.1% were exposed to radiotherapy, 5.4% were exposed to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, 0.8% were exposed to trastuzumab, 0.8% were exposed to interferon B, and 10.1% were exposed to surgery alone. An additional 10.9% of the mothers received no treatment during pregnancy. The investigators did not find significant differences in mental development between those exposed to these therapies and the control group, nor was the number of chemotherapy cycles during pregnancy (ranging from 1 to 10) related to the children's outcome. Among the key findings were the following: On the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, both groups of children had a median average score of 101 for mental development. The scores ranged from 56 to 145 for the children exposed to cancer treatment and from 50 to 145 for the unexposed children (the higher the score, the better). Premature birth had a larger effect on mental development than chemotherapy. It also was more frequent among children born to mothers with cancer, regardless of whether or not they had received prenatal treatment, in comparison with the general population. In most cases, these children were born prematurely because of a medical decision to induce preterm labor to continue cancer treatment after the delivery, Dr. Amant says. Of the 47 patients who at the age of 3 years had their cardiac function checked, 29 had been exposed to chemotherapy, but in comparison with the control group of children, there were no differences or abnormalities. Dr. Amant cautions that although the data include many types of chemotherapy, the findings cannot guarantee that all types of chemotherapy are safe, nor can they determine the effects of newer drugs, including targeted drugs. He notes that researchers must look at larger numbers of children and larger numbers exposed to each drug to document the potential effects of individual drugs. There is also a need for longer follow-up, and Professor Amant and his colleagues will continue to follow these children until the age of 18 years and enlarge the group. Furthermore, they will investigate to what extent anticancer drugs are diluted in the body during pregnancy as well as the psycho-emotional needs of mothers and their partners. References 1 Amant F, Vandenbroucke T, Verheecke M, et al. Pediatric outcome after maternal cancer diagnosed during pregnancy. N Engl J Med. 2015; 373: 1824– 1834. Volume122, Issue3February 1, 2016Pages 338-339 This article also appears in:CancerScope Archive 2014-2019 ReferencesRelatedInformation