The detection of breast cancer in pregnant women has increased in recent times, due in large part to being an increasingly older mother. Currently, most women have children between the ages of 30 and 40.
Unfortunately, breast cancer in pregnant women is detected late because its diagnosis is much more difficult when the breast tissue is modified by pregnancy and lactation. As the breast grows, tumors are more complicated to detect. In fact, most are detected within one year after pregnancy in an advanced stage.
Although they say that the incidence is not very high, they indicate that when they are young women, when they are detected late and since the response to hormonal treatment is lower, tumors in pregnant women become much more aggressive.
Experts have given discouraging data at the III Intercontinental Congress of Pathology that is being held this day in Barcelona. They point out that 42% of breast cancers have metastases at the time they are diagnosed, that more than half of those affected (53%) die before the age of five and that only one in three women survives ten years.
The fundamental thing is an early diagnosis. The woman herself is the one who knows her body best by becoming a key piece to detect the tumor as early as possible. It would be your thing if breast exams were part of prenatal and postnatal checkups, but at least in my case they have never checked me from the waist up.
As for cancer treatments during pregnancy, they can be harmful to the baby in the first trimester, but doctors indicate that once the fetus is mature, the most effective means to fight cancer are used and those that involve less risk to the baby
