Pregnant with cancer, healing for two - TODAY Health - TODAYshow.com: How do you treat cancer to save the mother — and still protect the unborn baby? It’s a growing problem that now affects as many as 1 in every 1,000 pregnant women, with about 3,500 diagnosed in the United States each year. As more women delay childbirth until they’re older, the incidence of cancer during pregnancy, particularly breast cancer, is going up.
As the number of the cases grows, however, so do the options for treatment. Instead of terminating pregnancy, once almost universally recommended, or waiting to treat the disease until after childbirth, perhaps allowing the cancer to grow, more women are urged to battle the cancer head-on.
Research shows that certain chemotherapy drugs, such as Lisa's treatments of Cytoxan and Ardriamycin, are safe during pregnancy because the drug molecules are too large to pass through the placenta. Unlike other toxins, they're prevented from reaching the baby. Growing research suggests that women treated for cancer while pregnant may do no worse than non-pregnant women, and perhaps even better.
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