Cancers coinciding with childbearing: delayed diagnosis during pregnancy?

Cancers associated with childbearing pose extremely difficult questions for the patient and her physician. Population based registry data gave us the opportunity to examine the incidence of this uncommon occurrence. Cases were identified following a linkage between the Swedish Cancer Registry and a nationwide fertility registry. Nearly all diagnosed cancers are recorded in the cancer registry.1 The fertility registry contains information on number and dates of live births for more than 2.3 million Swedish women born in 1925 and thereafter.2 Among women born from 1925 to 1972 more than 2.7 million live births and 32848 cancers were recorded during reproductive ages (15-44 years) in 1960-90. Of all cancers, 428 (1.3%) were diagnosed during pregnancy (date of a live birth-9 months) and 1425 (4.3%) during the lactation period (date of birth+12 months). The overall incidences during pregnancy and lactation, respectively, were 15.6 and 51.6 …