According to a study conducted in Cordoba, breast cancer is the most diagnosed tumor in pregnant, lactating and postpartum women.
Every year, about 5,000 women in Spain are diagnosed with postpartum breast cancer, is what the scientific community calls the disease when it occurs within ten years of a child’s last birth. This type of tumor with special molecular characteristics is the subject of a new line of research from the Geicam Breast Cancer Research Group as part of an investigation into the relationship between this type of breast cancer, pregnancy and breastfeeding.
“We are faced with a new clinical identity because these are tumors with different molecular characteristics,” said the Geicam member responsible for these analyzes in the group and director of the Breast and Clinical Research Unit at the Reina Sofía University Hospital in Cordoba. Juan de la Haba.
“The number of women diagnosed with breast cancer within ten years of giving birth is increasing, and hypotheses to explain this increase include:delay in the age at which women become mothers and late lactation. Postpartum breast cancer, the group’s focus, is typically more aggressive and has greater metastatic potential, and studying it will help us find solutions that will facilitate earlier diagnosis and better treatment,” says De la Haba.
This project is being developed under the auspices of Geicam in Maimonides Institute for Biomedical Research in Cordoba (Imibic), funded by the Carlos III Institute of Health (ISCIII), although the goal is to carry it out at the national level, explains this expert.
At the moment, 42 women participatingin which biopsies of tumor tissue and healthy tissue are examined to detect molecular changes in healthy tissue that may alert that breast to a predisposition to developing postpartum breast cancer.
As part of this research, a project is also being developed that, through breast milk, seeks to find out if there is a link between pregnancy, breastfeeding and breast cancer. The donated milk will become part of a biobank that will lead to future research and help identify the likelihood of postpartum breast cancer.
“We know that a percentage of women who give us their milk will develop breast cancer, which will help us get real information about the changes that occur in breastfeeding women and possible risk factors. Currently participated 400 female donorsand the challenge is to reach 2,000,” De la Haba said.
Developing project
Geicam study on breast cancer and desire to be a mother They started in 2013, with the first project already indicating a causal link between this tumor and pregnancy. “Research has already shown that breast cancer that occurs during pregnancy has different molecular characteristics than that which is not associated with pregnancy,” the specialist said.
These studies initiated the GEICAM/2017-07 (EMBARCAM) study, an epidemiological registry that collects clinical information on patients with gestational breast cancer (diagnosed during pregnancy or within a year after childbirth), followed fertility preservation techniques before treatment, or became mothers after treatment for breast cancer. They want to recruit at least 1,000 patients from all over Spain and have so far recruited 650 women from 28 hospitals.
According to the latest data results extracted from EMBARCAMin 113 patients the diagnosis was made during pregnancy; 96 during lactation; and 70 in the first year after becoming mothers, but not while breastfeeding.
On the other hand, 140 patients became pregnant after diagnosis and treatment, and 194 patients underwent reproductive therapy before cancer treatment because of their desire become mothers after breast cancer; Of these latter patients, 44 have now become pregnant.
According to Dr. de la Haba, “The average age of patients with gestational breast cancer is approximately 35 yearstherefore, it is hypothesized that delayed maternity may partly explain the growth of this tumor type.”
Analysis of the EMBARCAM study, presented at the recent congress in San Antonio, Texas (USA), provides evidence that pregnancy-associated breast cancer is potentially considered a different clinical and molecular entity, which may help improve your clinical management .
“Data show that although gestational breast cancer is different, there are two big scenarios: breast cancer that occurs indirectly during pregnancy, in which DNA repair systems appear to be altered, and breast cancer that appears during breastfeeding,” explains Dr. de la Haba.
“The results show that these are tumors with changes in genes involved in immune system reactionSo, with the EMBARCAM study, we see that we need to approach breast cancer that appears during pregnancy differently than breast cancer that appears during breastfeeding, because they have molecular changes that make a difference.” ” he elaborates, concluding that “These results support the idea that breast cancer may be associated with pregnancy or breastfeeding.”