(ANSA) – ROME, SEPTEMBER 12 – Breastfeeding your baby, even after having had breast cancer, is possible and safe. According to two international studies that will be presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2024 Congress, starting September 13 in Barcelona, women who breastfeed after receiving treatment for breast cancer, including those with a germline Brca mutation (an inherited change in the Brca genes that significantly increases the risk of developing certain cancers, especially breast cancer), do not run a higher risk of recurrence or of developing new breast cancers.
“Our study provides the first evidence on the safety of breastfeeding after breast cancer in young women who carry a germline Brca mutation,” says Eva Blondeaux, an oncologist at IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino in Genoa, who will present one of the studies. Given the hormone-driven nature of breast cancer, there have previously been concerns about pregnancy and breastfeeding after the disease, as both involve changes in hormone levels. This has been especially true for women with the Brca mutation, who remain at high risk of developing a second cancer in the other breast. Although recent studies have shown that neither assisted reproductive treatments nor pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of recurrence or new cases of breast cancer, even in women who carry a Brca mutation, until now there has been very little evidence on the feasibility and safety of breastfeeding in these women. The international study followed nearly 5,000 young women who carried a BRCA mutation and were breast cancer survivors. Nearly one in four of the 474 women who subsequently gave birth breastfed their baby; just under half were unable to breastfeed because both breasts had been removed to reduce their future cancer risk. After a median follow-up of seven years after giving birth, there was no difference in the number of breast cancer recurrences or new breast cancers in women who breastfed their baby compared to those who did not. There was also no difference in disease-free survival or overall survival. A second new study, expanding the investigation beyond BRCA to women with hormone receptor-positive early breast cancer, showed similar results, with no risks associated with breastfeeding. This is the international Positive study, which involved 518 women. “These findings are crucial for women who want to get pregnant and breastfeed their baby after breast cancer,” said Dr. Fedro Alessandro Peccatori, director of the Fertility and Reproduction Unit at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, a co-author of the study. “It’s time to start thinking about breast cancer survivors as women with all the rights, needs and possibilities of women who have never had cancer,” he stressed. “Doctors have been concerned about giving these women the chance to have a baby, but we have recently shown that it is safe in the short term. Now, with this new information, we can dispel the myth that breastfeeding is neither possible nor safe for breast cancer survivors.
They can have a normal pregnancy and relationship with their baby, including breastfeeding.” Until now, notes Maria Alice Franzoi, an oncologist at the Gustave Roussy Oncology Institute, who was not involved in the studies, “women and health professionals have not had information on the feasibility of breastfeeding after breast cancer surgery, on the safety of stopping adjuvant treatments to breastfeed, and on the hormonal changes related to it.” However, the expert concludes, “the follow-up of the studies should ideally continue for longer.” (ANSA).
2024-09-12 22:08:21