Survival in Women Diagnosed With Breast Cancer During Pregnancy.

INTRODUCTION: Pregnancy rarely coincides with breast cancer, but when it does, uncertainties remain about how survival is affected. In a nation-wide study, we investigated survival in women diagnosed with breast cancer during pregnancy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Through health registries, we identified women with breast cancer at ages 15-44 years from 1973-2016 in Denmark and included 156 who were pregnant at diagnosis and 11,110 who were not. We compared overall mortality in pregnant and non-pregnant women using multivariate Cox regression stratified by time since cancer: <2 and ≥2 years. RESULTS: During the first 2 years after diagnosis, the hazard ratio of overall death was 2.28 (95% CI: 1.48-3.52) for pregnant versus non-pregnant breast cancer patients after adjustment for age and calendar period and 1.62 (95% CI: 1.05-2.50) after further adjustment for extent of disease. Adjusting for additional tumor characteristics, the hazard ratio was still significantly increased. Beyond the first 2 years, there was no excess mortality. CONCLUSION: Our study identifies the early period after breast cancer as a period of particular interest in future studies on survival after breast cancer in pregnancy. We found no evidence that survival is affected by pregnancy when 2 or more years have passed since diagnosis.

Pregnancy-associated cancer and the risk of second primary cancer.

PURPOSE: Hormonal changes related to pregnancy and lactation among women treated for cancer might influence the risk of second primary cancer. We investigated whether pregnancy near the time of breast cancer, Hodgkin lymphoma or other cancer diagnoses is associated with increased risk of developing a new primary cancer. METHODS: Women born after 1 April 1935 diagnosed with cancer at ages 15-44 years during 1968-2006 were identified in the Danish Cancer Registry. Information about pregnancies from various nationwide registers was used to identify women with a pregnancy-associated cancer defined as a cancer diagnosed 6 or fewer months before the pregnancy, during the pregnancy or up to 1 year after the pregnancy. Second primary cancers were ascertained through 2013, and hazard ratios (HRs) were calculated using Cox regression models adjusted for age, calendar-period and number of pregnancies with the reference defined as cancer not associated with a pregnancy. RESULTS: We identified 2,974 women with pregnancy-associated cancer and 31,970 women who were not pregnant near the time of their cancer diagnosis. There was no association between pregnancy-associated cancer and a second cancer (HR 0.91; 95% CI 0.79-1.05). Among 680 women with either breast cancer or Hodgkin lymphoma associated with pregnancy, a HR of 1.16 (95% CI 0.87-1.56) for second breast cancer was observed based on 48 cases. CONCLUSION: While hormonal changes might stimulate development of specific cancers, in particular breast cancer, it is reassuring that risk of breast and other second cancers was not related to pregnancy near the time of a first primary cancer diagnosis.

[The hepatopulmonary syndrome]. / Det hepatopulmonale syndrome.

The hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) - a complication of liver disease - seems to be underdiagnosed, probably because of decreased awareness. HPS consists of the triade liver disease, intrapulmonary vascular dilatation and as a consequence arterial hypoxaemia. No medical therapy has proven effective perhaps with the exception of garlic, which has been effective in one controlled clinical trial. However, liver transplantation seems to improve HPS in most cases. Liver patients with unexplained hypoxaemia should be investigated for HPS.

Mortality Among Women With Cervical Cancer During or Shortly After a Pregnancy in Denmark 1968 to 2006.

OBJECTIVE: Cervical cancer diagnosed in relation to a pregnancy is rare; however, the current trend to have children later in life increases the risk of pregnancy and cervical cancer coinciding. We investigated the mortality of women diagnosed with cervical cancer during or in relation to a pregnancy. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From the nationwide Danish Cancer Registry, we identified women diagnosed with a primary cervical cancer at ages 15 to 44 years during 1968 to 2006 born after April 1, 1935. The women were linked to several Danish national registries to obtain information on births and abortions. In addition, linkage was made to the Cause of Death Register. Overall and cause-specific hazards ratios (HRs) were assessed by Cox proportional hazards regression with adjustment for age, calendar year, and extent of disease. RESULTS: A total of 6135 cervical cancers were identified. Among these, 126 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer during pregnancy, 1856 were diagnosed with cervical cancer 0 to 4 years after a pregnancy, and 4153 were diagnosed with cervical cancer more than 30 days before or 5 years or more after a pregnancy or had no known pregnancies. The latter group was used as reference. The adjusted HR for death due to cervical cancer was 1.77 (95% confidence interval, 1.21-2.60) among women diagnosed with cervical cancer during pregnancy compared with that in the reference group, while the corresponding HR among women with cervical cancer 0 to 4 years after pregnancy was 0.96 (95% confidence interval, 0.83-1.10) compared with that in the reference group. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest an increased mortality for women diagnosed with cervical cancer during pregnancy, but not among those diagnosed shortly after pregnancy. This finding should be explored further in larger populations.

[Cancer can be a differential diagnosis by psychiatric symptoms]. / Cancer kan være differentialdiagnose ved psykiatriske symptomer.

We present a patient with psychiatric symptoms as the first manifestation from an undetected brain tumor. The patient had symptoms of psychosis and a prior history with depression. A slight alteration in consciousness was found but no neurological deficits. Blood tests showed increased infection counts and particularly increased creatinine kinase. A large frontal glioma cerebri was found on cranial computed tomography and was surgically removed. The symptoms fully resolved afterwards. Psychosis can present with a variety of symptoms but particularly altered consciousness should arouse suspicion of physical origin.

Persistent genital arousal disorder: confluent patient history of agitated depression, paroxetine cessation, and a tarlov cyst.

We report a case of a woman suffering from persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) after paroxetine cessation. She was admitted to a psychiatric department and diagnosed with agitated depression. Physical investigation showed no gynaecological or neurological explanation; however, a pelvic MRI scan revealed a Tarlov cyst. Size and placement of the cyst could not explain the patient's symptoms; thus neurosurgical approach would not be helpful. Her depression was treated with antidepressant with little effect. Electroconvulsive therapy improved the patient's symptoms though they did not fully resolve. More awareness of PGAD and thorough interdisciplinary conferences are necessary to insure an unequivocal treatment strategy.

Incidence of pregnancy-associated cancer in Denmark, 1977-2006.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the incidence of pregnancy-associated cancer during a 30-year period in Denmark on the basis of both births and abortions with and without age adjustment and age standardization. METHODS: Using data from the nationwide Danish registries, we investigated the occurrence of pregnancy-associated cancer (defined as cancer diagnosed during pregnancy and up to 1 year after pregnancy has ended) in pregnancies resulting in a birth (live birth or stillbirth) or an abortion. We included patients with primary cancer diagnosed at ages 15-44 years during 1977-2006 according to the Danish Cancer Registry. The patients were linked to the Medical Birth Registry, the Registry for Induced Abortions, and the National Patient Registry to obtain information on pregnancies. RESULTS: We identified 2,426 patients with pregnancy-associated cancer. The three most frequent types were melanoma, cervical cancer, and breast cancer. We found an increase in the total numbers of all pregnancy-associated cancers from 572 cases during 1977-1986 to 1,052 cases during 1997-2006. The proportions of all pregnancy-associated cancers among all cancers increased from 5.4% to 8.3% during the same periods. The overall crude incidence rate of all pregnancy-associated cancer was 89.6 out of 100,000 pregnancies. The crude incidence increased over time, with an average annual percentage change of 2.9% (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.4-3.3). After age adjustment, the increase was still statistically significant (1.6%, 95% CI 1.1-2.1). CONCLUSION: We found a statistically significant increase in pregnancy-associated cancer during the 30-year study period. The tendency to postpone childbirth only partly explains the increase in incidence rates. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.