Associated Press
By MARIA CHENG (AP) – 18 hours ago
BARCELONA, Spain — Women who survive breast cancer and have children afterwards don't appear to be at any higher risk of dying from cancer, a new study says.
Doctors have long worried pregnancy might spark hormonal changes in breast cancer survivors that could spur the disease's return, and many breast cancer patients are counseled against getting pregnant after they recover.
ScienceDaily (Nov. 25, 2009) — Researchers have found that hormones produced during pregnancy induce a protein that directly inhibits the growth of breast cancer. This protein, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), may serve as a viable, well-tolerated agent for the treatment and prevention of breast cancer, according to findings published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
"Hormones in pregnancy, such as estrogen, all induce AFP, which...
THE number of women diagnosed with breast cancer during pregnancy or soon after giving birth has almost doubled since the 1960s, and researchers say cases will continue to rise as women have children later in life.
The incidence of pregnancy-associated breast cancer rose from 16 in every 100,000 deliveries to 37.4 per 100,000 deliveries between 1963 and 2002, a study has found.
There is new evidence that breast-feeding is associated with a lower incidence of breast cancer among a group of younger women who are at particularly high risk: those with breast cancer in the family.
Although several studies have found that lactation is protective against breast cancer, the new report found little effect for premenopausal women over all. But for women with an immediate relative, like a mother or a sister,...
Pregnancy Has No Impact On Breast Cancer Survival, Delays Treatment, Diagnosis, Study Finds
ScienceDaily (Feb. 10, 2009) — Young women who develop breast cancer during their pregnancy, or who are diagnosed within one year of their pregnancy, have no difference in rates of local recurrence, distant metastases and overall survival compared to other young women with the disease, according to researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
