December 11, 2025 – The landscape of cancer care just got a little clearer for expectant mothers, with new guidelines offering a roadmap for managing the disease during pregnancy. A multidisciplinary panel of experts has released recommendations covering everything from diagnosis to delivery, aiming to optimize outcomes for both patient and baby.
Navigating Cancer and Pregnancy: New Guidelines Offer Hope
A new ASCO guideline provides crucial recommendations for managing cancer during pregnancy, a complex situation increasingly seen as both cancer diagnoses occur earlier and more women delay childbearing.
- Cancer during pregnancy, while uncommon, is becoming more frequent.
- New guidelines address diagnostic testing, treatment, delivery planning, and ethical considerations.
- The recommendations aim to improve outcomes for both the pregnant patient and the developing fetus.
- Experts emphasize the need for nuanced discussions about risks and benefits of various therapies.
What should a pregnant patient do if she’s diagnosed with cancer? The new guidelines emphasize a collaborative approach, weighing the risks and benefits of treatment options while prioritizing the health of both mother and child. Careful consideration of timing for both diagnosis and intervention is paramount.
The increasing incidence of cancer during pregnancy is a result of both earlier cancer diagnoses and the trend of women delaying childbearing. This presents unique challenges, as many therapies are not well-studied in pregnant populations.
Fortunately, our understanding of which therapies are safe during pregnancy is growing. This allows for more informed discussions about the potential risks and benefits of different treatment approaches. Though, Dr. Partridge cautioned that the limited number of cases makes the available literature “both vast and limited.” The guideline aims to synthesize this information to best support clinical decision-making.
Recent thinking has also evolved regarding the optimal timing of delivery for patients in advanced pregnancy. Ther’s a growing appreciation for the risks associated with premature delivery, leading to a more nuanced approach. Dr. Loren explained that the guideline represents “a meeting of the minds from maternal-fetal medicine and medical oncology,” striving to articulate the risks while still allowing patients and their care teams to determine acceptable levels of risk.
The guideline also tackles sensitive ethical and legal considerations, offering recommendations to support patients in making informed decisions about continuing or terminating their pregnancy. This is especially relevant given the evolving legal landscape surrounding abortion access in many states.
Looking to the future, Dr. Loren emphasized the need for further research, particularly studies modeling the potential toxicities of cancer-directed therapies. She also highlighted the importance of ongoing data collection through registries to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of different management strategies.
REFERENCE
1. Loren AW, Lacchetti C, Amant F, et al. Management of cancer during pregnancy: ASCO guideline. J Clin Oncol. Published online December 11, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO-25-02115.
